Last Saturday,  the famous, or perhaps infamous Dr. Jack Kevorkian was scheduled to speak at UCLA’s Royce Hall in front of a sold out audience. The night was coordinated by UCLA’s Armenian Student Association and the Armenian American Medical Society and was the first time that “Dr. Death” made an appearance for Armenian fans, many of whom lined up anxiously outside the hall waiting for him. I was invited to cover the event, which lasted around two hours and as people piled out, a journalistic switch went off in my head and I darted for the stage.  After haggling with security who wouldn’t let me near him, I flagged down his attorney, gave him my card, then somehow got access backstage to an impromptu press conference. Once there, I got a chance to ask Dr. Kevorkian two questions. Alongside a line of television crews, I was left in a euphoric state after he gave the longest and most thoughtful answers to me.

While I’ve down played the details of this encounter and the events that came before so that I don’t sound like completely like a baffling buffoon, it was definitely an exciting night.  Every single time I go out to file a report, it makes me realize why I decided to become a journalist in the first place. There is nothing better than that rush that propels you forward, that moment that you’re sweating head to toe but you don’t care because something, some greater force that you can’t control or explain is making your legs move or your voice heard at the spur of the moment – completely unplanned.

You don’t think, you don’t analyze, you don’t ask for someone’s opinion, or wait around to see what happens. Fear or anxiety are nowhere to be found. You charge forward and you just do. That is what journalism is all about and that’s why there’s nothing else in this world that could make me as happy as it does.

In case you’d like to read an account of the night:

Jack Kevorkian Connects with Armenian Fans at Sold Out Show

After a bout of writer’s block and much thought, I’ve decided the best solution to cure the struggles with feeling insecure about my writing and trying to get published and explore other writing opportunities is quite simple: more writing. It’s sortof like that Pepto Bismol commercial where a girl calls a help center because her friend is having a cherry overload and the customer service rep says the solution is more cherry. Or maybe I watch too much television.

I made some pretty aggressive resolutions this year in terms of my writing and I’m glad I did because they motiviate me to pursue what I love further. It has now been 47 days since the new year began and I am doing my best to balance a freelance writing career with a full-tim job as an editor. Needless to say, it’s difficult. I have published a couple articles online, but nothing gives me more of a thrill than print or a publication that reaches and affects a large number of people in the U.S and abroad.

It has been almost two years that I have graduated school. In my dreams before I left school, I imagined myself as a reporter for a publication like LA Weekly, writing short stories on the side, developing ideas for a novel and inching towards my ultimate goal of writing for a national magazine and the New York Times.

Quite often, life does not work out the way you plan, especially when you’re still wrapped up in the protective cocoon known as school. While I am very thankful I have a job, especially one in the field I studied and have such passion for, I want more. I want to be the young reporter who breaks news stories, who affects people’s lives, who encounters amazing people and new experiences through the articles she writes. I want work long hours and work hard, if it means writing something I’m proud of, if it means writing something that others want to read.

Anyway, enough romanticizing on my soap box for today. I’m sticking to my resolutions. For now, I’ve compiled a list of publications that I’m going to pitch ideas to. Hopefully, one of them (or more I hope) will bite. In the meantime, I’ve made a lot of meaningful connections with writers, journalists, editors and PR people on the amazing phenomenon known as Twitter. I hope to grow and continue these relationships. I’m hopeful and looking forward to accomplishing the first in a series of goal I’ve set out for my life.

“If you believe that some day it’s going to happen, some day it probably will happen. You just have to make sure you’re there when it’s happening, and ideally you’re at the front of the parade, and the principle beneficiary of when it happens, but it’s not a kind of thing where you just sort of sit back and wait.”
- Steve Case