Practice makes perfect

So heading in to today I thought I was going to be really nervous since all that I have done so far is reporting. I was anchor and have never recorded live before. I seriously thought I would need alcohol to get through it. But I was actually not nervous at all. The more we continue to do this the better it gets and the easier it gets. I feel like the mood in the newsroom the last couple of times has been really chill and it feels like it's all coming easier. I still think I could have done better as anchor. I felt at times I let my voice get monotone and with my pacing at some points I was too fast. I really want another crack at it though because I think I can definitely improve. Something else I think I could have done better today is write with a more conversational style. But other than that I was pleased with the way things went. Jon was on top of things and did a great job dividing the stories and going with the flow. I was having trouble getting my foner. I wanted to do a piece about that child prodigy Erik Gustafson but the principal of his school has become a bit too celebrity it seems. In the end we settled on a story about the new sanctions in Iran. I actually really liked covering this story. I didn't know much about the sanctions but the guy I interviewed was great. He is a political science teacher called Mehrzad Bojouredi who specializes in Iranian politics. He really told me everything I needed to know about the sanctions and explained the implications well. I decided in my story to go with the angle I thought most people would care about: Does this take us closer to war? But I learnt a lot of other interesting stuff. This could actually be a step to war since the Iranian people are upset at being labelled terrorists. But really the sanctions won't stop much, since thee Iranian government will still easily find ways to lander money or find other banks to fund them. Ties between America and the Middle East seem really important since everyone seems to think we're headed for World War 3. But really I don't know what is going on. So anytime it is explained for me it makes me feel smart for knowing something I should probably know anyway.