I am almost finished with my first story for this class.

I am almost finished, but I am not satisfied.

Meet the deadline. That is my mantra.

At present, I think I am dissatisfied with my work because I don’t have the same authority as a print journalist.

I always loved calling people up when I was working for Broadside. I could say: “My name is Elizabeth Grisham. I am a reporter with Broadside. I’d like to ask you some questions about…”

The person on the other end of the phone would usually answer my questions on the spot or make arrangements to speak with me at a later time.

Now, though, all I can say is: “My name is Elizabeth Grisham. I’m a student journalist writing a story on X for an online journalism class.”

People haven’t been jumping at the chance to be featured on my obscure blog. I can’t say that I blame them. They have other things to do.

At this point, I have my story. I just received answers to some follow-up questions from one of my sources. I have some new pictures on my camera that I took on Thursday. I still have to get my video for my story and I still have to do the final polishing.

What I want to know is how do I make all of this work turn into something that matters— something that makes a difference?

All I can do is keep thinking, I suppose. Please let me know, dear readers, if you have any ideas on this matter.

In the meantime, I hope you will at least enjoy the new bells and whistles I am getting better at using and the speed at which I am now writing. I have never written as quickly as I have been writing this year. I think I’m writing faster because I have less time.

You probably have less time, too, so I will sign off for now. Thanks for reading.