we all do it

Google ourselves, that is. Right?

That is how I found out that after this blog, my second entry is a link to the six articles I wrote for the Los Angeles Times back in 2000.

Looking back I (a shy, soft-spoken, scrapbooking SAHM) can hardly believe that I worked at one of the biggest newspapers of the country. Yes, it was an internship, but still I managed to get SIX articles published in 3 months! But that was the end of my short-lived career as a journalist. It was an awful summer I spent interning at the science/health desk in downtown L.A. I was a nervous wreck for most of the summer, trying to keep up with much more talented, more outgoing go-getters. And it quickly convinced me that I was not cut out for daily news.

How did I even manage to get this gig, with no experience other than a fact-checking internship at the L.A. Weekly? It was through the Kaiser Family Foundation Media Internship in Health Reporting. I already had my masters in public health and had a job at the county health department which I hated. The only reason I got my MPH was as a back-door to medical school. Who was I kidding? I can barely stand watching a phlebotomist draw my own blood. Anyway, I thought health journalism would be my way out. To use my MPH as well as my like (it was never really a love) of writing. I even had my "beat" figured out. I would cover Asian American health issues. Actually, I am very proud of the two articles I wrote in this area: "Why More Elderly Asian Women Kill Themselves" and "Culture Puts Vietnamese Women at Increased Cancer Risk." Kinda morbid topics, but still.

I don't why I am reminiscing about this frantic chapter in my life. Probably because the only thing close to writing (or remotely resembling a career or professional life) I do these days are this blog, Sofi's pre-school newsletter and journaling on my scrapbook pages. And probably because I'm hormonal. And 10 weeks pregnant.

But who knows, maybe one day I will find a new "beat" to cover.

ETA: Oh I forgot. I do write a hybrid scrapbooking article every month for Digital Artist Magazine :) That counts, right?