I am a music minor at Baylor for a reason. I love covering the arts. It is my favorite section, my niche, my forte. It is visually exciting, design-friendly, always reinventing itself, never dull, expressive by nature and requires going to performances and gallery openings (versus crime scenes, council meetings and disasters. Yes, I’m looking at you, hard news lovers.)

As a musician and former actress and dancer, I can appreciate the long hours put in by performers, especially children who give up so much to be great at their art. While performing is very fun and addictive, even for kids, it can be frustrating to know that your friends are all free to run and play while you are rehearsing 24/7.

However, having experience as a performer and as a visual artist through my photography and graphic design work, I don’t cut any slack for art that doesn’t measure up. As a journalist, I’m not afraid to speak the truth. At the same time, that often includes giving credit where credit is due and I have to say, that is probably my favorite part of this field.

Though I have been doing A&E journalism for a while through my coverage of academic arts and the CCM scene at Baylor, I officially start my job as A&E editor with an interview with a band made up of Baylor alums. I am also going to review their new album. Don’t want to give too much away just yet, but you can look for it in the "welcome back" issue of The Baylor Lariat.

Even more imminent, I start my career as a theater critic tomorrow evening with my coverage of  the DC Fringe Festival for the next issue of The Georgetowner. I’ve done some fun pieces this summer, but this is the first one that I have really felt like "Yes! This is what I want to do."  Hopefully that feeling will continue as I actually start work on writing and designing this piece. (p.s. I get to do all of the design on this as well! I have really been bitten by the design bug this summer. I’ve always loved it, but now I am really thinking this is something I can run with in the future.)