Jonathan's Reflection

On April 15 my Introduction to Journalism group and I had scheduled an interview appointment with the Kirkland Reporter in Kirkland. The interview was scheduled to start at roughly 1:45pm. After my morning class ended at 1:20pm, I started my adventure down to the Kirkland Reporter from the University of Washington, Bothell.
Knowing that I had more than twenty minutes to get to the site, I was confident I'd make it with time to spare. I had looked up the address and got directions from the internet, I was more than ready. In no more than fifteen minutes I was in Kirkland and within a few turns before arriving at the Kirkland Reporter site. After taking the last turn that the directions gave, I arrived at an empty plaza parking lot. Although confused, I decided to park anyway and proceed to look for the Kirkland Reporter. After fifteen minutes of walking around the outer ring of this plaza, I decided that I was lost. I drove out of this plaza and circled the perimeter of the area and a couple times more, I could not find the Kirkland Reporter, although I did get to see the lovely Kirkland area in a three mile radius of the plaza.

During this time, I saw several auto dealerships, nice new looking apartments, condominiums, food centers, auto shops...etc. After realizing I was already thirty minutes late, I had given up and wanted to just head home. However, something in me wanted to check the inside of the plaza one last time. While doubting myself, at the very end corner hiding to the right, there is a small paper sign on a small window of a office, "Kirkland Reporter."
I joined my group that were more than half way through the scheduled interview time, and received a warm welcome from my group as well as the Kirkland Reporter staff. I introduced myself and the staff did, too. With us in the interview were Carrie Wood, the paper's editor; Mike Walter, the publisher; and Matt Phelps, the sports writer. My biggest impression of the interview was the relaxed atmosphere; we were in a small office room with a single table and a couple chairs. We were able to get through all of the questions that we had wanted to ask, and more. Carrie and Matt were very happy to answer every question that we had.















I have never been to a newspaper office prior to this experience; everything about it was a first to me. And I really enjoyed it!