Work placement

First semester of CreComm year two is coming to an end this Friday. As apart of the program, the second year students get to go on three weeks of work placement.

My work placement is at the Winnipeg Sun and I will be doing some sports writing. I am very excited as I've always wanted to get into sports journalism and this is a great way to get my foot in the door.

Looking back to last September, I didn't know what I was getting into when I entered CreComm.

I had just spend two years at the University of Winnipeg and to be honest, I didn't feel as if I was going anywhere. So, I decided to throw my name in for CreComm and I got accepted.

Since then, I've learned so much about journalism and if you told me 12 months ago that I'd be working with the Winnipeg Sun for three weeks, I would have laughed.

Now it feels like I have a career path and that I will be making a mark in this industry soon enough.

Coming to Red River College was the best decision I've made in my life and with a lot of hard work, it looks like it'll pay off.

I'm looking forward to the stretch run of CreComm.

Bruce Springsteen

This long weekend, I had the pleasure of driving down to St. Paul to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform for the second time.

The best part about Springsteen shows are the people you meet and the stories you hear. And the saying, "everyone has a story" is so very true.

One that sticks out is when my step-father and I met an older lady, who was celebrating her 88th birthday the following day - which happened to be the night of the show.

She was from Jersey and has been following Bruce since 1974. She's seen over 400 shows and danced with him on stage in past shows.

To my shock, she was on the floor for this concert - and happened to get into the pit (as did I). Once Springsteen started playing Dancing in the Dark late in the show, he walked over towards her, picked her up from the crowd, brought her on stage and started dancing with her. It was one of the highlights of the show - and it shows how Springsteen can connect with the audience like no other musician can.

Going to a Springsteen show isn't a concert - it's an experience. During the weekend, I met people from Austin, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; and the craziest yet - Australia. Springsteen fans are amongst the most passionate that you'll ever meet.

They all had crazy stories and they all shared one thing in common - a love of music - and that love connected them - even if they live thousands of miles away from each other.

If you ever have the chance of seeing him live, I would recommend it. Besides creating five decades of great music, Springsteen's live shows are superb. He plays three hour shows and unlike many bands who have static set lists - he changes his every night.

Writing comedy

As apart of my comedy class, we had to perform three minutes of stand up at Rumor's Comedy Club.

I was pretty nervous - not about perfroming - but writing 180 seconds worth of "funny" material.

Being a journalism student definitely helped me with my writing process. I was able to write a "story" about elevators, while still making it punchy and funny - well, funny to some people anyways.

And on Sunday night, I was able to test out my material at a sold out Rumor's Comedy Club.

Surprisingly, it went well. Being on stage was a great experience. The lights were bright and the crowd was into the stand ups.

While I was up there, it seemed like the three minutes flew by. And when I got off the stage, I felt disappointed.

However, when I was able to re-watch my stand up, I was pleased with my performance - considering it was my first time on stage.

So for future CreComms, I would highly suggest taking the comedy class. Number one: It's fun. But more than anything, you'll learn a lot about yourself when you have to write and perform stand up in front of complete strangers.