Journalism is one of the professions that requires our energy, concentration, commitment and all of us. The adrenaline works once one is involved in the story—enthusiasm is crucial in our profession.
My adrenaline started from the moment I talked with Meredith Davenport last October 2015. I was very pregnant (9 months) and she was trying to organize everything for the Summer School in AUK Prishtina. Not only did her CV look promising, she worked among various cultures and in different countries and media, including for the New York Times and National Geographic, but her positive energy is what struck me the most.
This July we met in Prishtina for the first time, and my son Jani was there as well. You have to be lucky and it is important when in a work people have good chemistry together, and ideas too. I have worked at the University of Prishtina from 2012 with students of journalism and still I was enthusiastic. I had my thoughts at the beginning that Meredith and I were more excited than the students but this changed gradually. As time passed by, students got more involved in their stories.
With one of the students we traveled to Mirusha, with Saadia we visited the Bektashi community in Gjakova. Their work includes stories from one about a trans-gendered boy to one about poor families living in what were previously prisons. Some days ago I finally saw the enthusiasm that I was waiting to see. Here they were Jacmin and Whentian in one of the lectures, completely different. At the beginning of the class they were as silent as a rock and as soon as they were involved in their stories they found themselves, their happiness made me appreciate the effect that journalism has on us.
I am going to leave Prishtina and the class will end this week, but with me I take a lot of lessons. Five of them I want to share with you.
– Sincerity (you have to be sincere with your sources and treat them with respect)
– Approach (this profession puts you in a difficult situation and being shy does not help)
– Persistence (journalists should not give up on their ideas, even when the story is almost about to fall apart)
– Behind the story (this is one, how shall I put it… You start a simple story but there is a big story behind it. It is no accident when people refuse to speak in a story. Think about it!).
– Accuracy (we are the guardians of the truth; we should be accurate on what we report).