Maddie Kantz: Punchy

The dictionary defines punchy as meaning an immediate impact. As soon as we left NASH with the itinerary in mind and a four hour ride ahead of us, I was aware that certain places would leave an immediate impact, but I didn’t know that other places would also leave an immediate impact in unexpected ways.  Beginning with NPR and ending with The Museum of African American History, throughout the trip, we were presented with many chances to either let the information slip by us or quickly interpret the information for our own good.  All throughout the trip everybody quickly used the information for our own good.

As we walked into NPR (National Public Radio), I didn’t know what knowledge I was going to come out of the building with. I believed I was going to leave with the same knowledge about podcasts because in my mind podcasts were just simple pieces that didn’t take that much to produce. To begin our tour, an intern of NPR began to talk about what NPR is and who makes up the radio station. I soon realized that NPR was a lot more than what appeared to outsiders who have heard very little about it, like me. NPR was more than just another radio station.  I was quickly impressed and blown away by the hard work, strategy, and dedication that the employees have for journalism and news. After this trip, I will definitely be listening to NPR.

On Saturday, we had the privilege to listen and talk to journalists of the National Press Club. Going in, I thought it was going to be another, supposed to be inspiring, speech about journalists and how they got to where they are in life.  Before I knew it, we had already been talking with the three journalists for close to an hour! I hadn’t even realized it had been that long because I was so carried away with the jobs that the three journalists seemed to do so well.

Lastly, walking into the Newseum, I knew there were going to be better and other parts of the newseum that were going to be a little harder to see. There is a map at the Newseum that shows which countries have a free press, and it immediately hit me how lucky we were to live in such a privileged country because everyday I take for granted the ability to speak my mind if I wanted to. As I walked into the Pulitzer photo gallery, I didn’t expect to leave feeling the way I did. I was quickly hit with the powerful effects of the pictures that tell a story by themselves. As much as I didn ‘t like to believe it, I was most impacted by the fact that I was just going on with my life as these photos were taken.