Our girl Lindsay S

Last night's class was full of fun and excitement as OSU alum Lindsay Schnell came into class to talk about her career after studying Liberal Arts at Oregon State. I learned a lot. In fact, I consider myself enlightened once again due to this fantastic Tuesday night class. Lindsay told us many stories about the people, places and situations she's encountered during her rise to the top as a reporter for the Oregonian.

She started with a personal introduction: who she is, where she's from and why she has ended up as a decorated writer of athletes and sports for one of the largest newspapers in the Northwest. I was quite impressed to say the least. I had heard about Lindsay from my advisor and NMC profs, and was happy to get to see her, take her all in, in class. She's kind of a wild one to be honest. What is she, like 6' at least? As she said, "tall, blond and loud", obviously not a formula for blending in in a crowd.

After hearing a little background, we heard a little more about what's going on in her world of reporting... which inevitably led to the first story she has ever broken this past weekend about UO quarterback Jeremiah Masoli being accused of theft by a frat house in Eugene. The case is far from closed and Masoli is far from trial, as any famous college athlete would be in this situation, but Lindsay was there first. It was exciting for me to hear exactly how "the breaking" of a story goes down: extremely fast-paced and dependent on other people who can make or break this career-changing story for you. To be honest, I', not sure if my blood pressure and stress levels would allow me to make out of that situation alive, but I suppose that comes with the job description.

I think what affected me the most out of listening to Schnell is the way she has always known what she wanted to do, and how she wanted to do it. With the media industry experiencing such dramatic DAILY revolutions, it's hard for me to imagine knowing... anything. I know I want to be involved, but I'm not sure how or where. It's fascinating to me that Lindsay knew she wanted to have a career in writing and sports, and now she does. Granted, it didn't appear out of thin air. Many turbulent years of hard work, lack of a college social life and passion landed her where she is now. But, she always knew it would come.

Thank God for people like Lindsay Schnell, who simply know what they want and push anything out of the way to obtain it.