The day is finally here...

"Asheville residents recall meeting Obama." Features Article, Asheville Citizen-Times, 18 January 2009.

We've all waited for it. Dreamed about it. Considered how much better our lives would be after it. At times, it seemed like it would never come about. But that day is finally here.

At long last, I have written my first features article for a non-campus publication. It's time to break out the champagne, obviously.

I really enjoyed the process of putting together this article-- though I was a bit apprehensive about doing interviews, my worries soon faded away once I started talking to people and hearing their stories. When I hear someone get excited about something, I can't help but get excited about it as well, which makes the story so much easier to write. I felt like the narrative for this story just fell together.

The night this article ran, I received a call from Payam, the Iranian-American I interviewed, thanking me for the article and how I portrayed him. When writing, I always worry about presenting the truth. I felt like I had received the ultimate compliment, to receive such high praise from one of my subjects.

I know this isn't a hard-hitting news story, and I don't pretend that this was especially trying to research, but I think I'm allowed to feel proud of what I've done. The world needs to hear about the Payams of the world just as much as we need to be informed of attacks in Gaza or plane crashes.