We sat crouched around the laptop, stared at the blank word document, and then turned to look at each other. One question loomed over our heads: where to begin? Laura and I faced a difficult task - writing a feature story about the confusion surrounding the Sikh religion. On Wednesday, our PSJ group had a goal: we wanted to find out just how many New Yorkers know about Sikhism. We wanted to investigate this because this issue is especially pertinent after the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin on last Sunday. We predicted that most Americans greatly misunderstand this religion, and our poll confirmed that notion.
Laura and I spent the afternoon in one of Princeton's beautiful auditorium-style classrooms, decorating a chalkboard with ideas, names, and questions regarding our story with the guidance of our counselor Simon. Hours vanished as we conducted phone interviews, scribbled notes, and drafted a first copy of our story. We worked late into the night, but as we walked back to our dorms, Laura and I felt a twinge of victory and a sweet foreshadowing of how proud we will feel when we complete our article and read it in print in just a few days. We are both excited about this piece because it offers us a chance to educate ourselves about a religion that, quite frankly, we didn't know much about. More importantly, we have the opportunity to teach our readers about Sikhism and reveal the misconceptions about this religion. We have the chance to truly embody journalism and use our power to represent a misunderstood minority.
We still have a lot of work to do, but we have taken the first couple of steps, and from here we will press onward. We await hours of proofreading, editing, and revision, but our determination to write an excellent story will carry us forwards over these next two days.
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