new semesta'

Journalism can feel like the absolute death of me, while at the same time feel like my saving grace. I love the feeling I get when I finish a story or interview someone successfully. I love knowing the "AP style rules" and feeling like I know what I'm talking about. But at the beginning of the semester, when we have to come up with potential story ideas and sources, I freak out. My mind goes numb and blank. Last semester in news reporting, my "beat" worked out spectacularly and I got all stressed about it for no reason. This semester I have literary journalism and I have to find 3 different topics to write a narrative on. So far, my only idea is to follow around a funeral director and talk about what they do on a daily basis. Let's face it, that's a very awkward job to have. I enjoy knowing why someone would want to be so involved in death as a career. That's all I've got though and the ideas are slim to none. I need assistance to get my mind going on potential ideas. And that makes me feel somewhat like a failure. My other class will be doing an entire semester focusing on homelessness in Chicago. I've always wanted to have a homeless friend, like the guy that sits by Dunkin' Donuts on Michigan Ave and once called me his girlfriend. But how do I convince someone starving and freezing on the street to talk to me about how hard it is to be starving and freezing on the street? I'm excited about the subject, but wondering how stories will present themselves or HOW I'll find the stories.

I feel like I could change the world. I just don't know how or where to find my mojo.