An article I had to squid out

I am not a fan of being late. That includes everything, whether it is a meeting, a class, sporting event, television show, date, anything. It turns out that this week story that I have spent a couple days working on just hasn't been working in my favor. Not being able to get in touch with a UNH campus fire chief really was something that bothered me.

 I spent a couple of times calling and leaving messages, but I was unable to get a call back in order to get credible quotes to the story I was working on. I was able to receive quotes from students, UNH Dining Hall director, but I needed to speak with the fire chief to bring my article at full-circle. It is just unfortunate because it wasn't the lack of me not trying to get this article done, it was the lack of response from the source that I needed.

 All in all, it leaves me with using my pass to "squid" out an article that is due for the class. Stories are getting hard to come by for me as it seems, and I knew this story would have been a good thing to write about, but I knew if I didn't have the quote from the fire chief that this article would have lacked credibility, so I have to dismiss it. However, I do have an article in mind for this coming week and I am excited for that. I think I just need more practice on finding stories, and really getting the sources I need. Maybe if I took a trip up to the fire department I would have been in better luck than trying to get in touch via phone.

The more I think of it, the more I feel like I cheated myself out of an article, because that would have been a great thing to do. All in all, I am late with this article, and the pass will have to be used. Am I disappointed? A little bit, but at least this pass will be used and it will push myself more to go out and find a story then laying back on a pass to just get me by.

It's a win-win situation for me and I am one to look on the brighter things in life. I take this past "fail" attempt at an article as I lesson learned, and that is not to give up, and to always keep pushing for answers; whether it is going out your way to get in touch with someone or simply looking at other angles to take into consideration with finding a story within a story.