Famous.

The journalistic tables were turned on me yesterday.

My boss and some my co-workers hosted the groundbreaking ceremony for the newest apartment complex at Dordt. They planned the ceremony at just the right moment during the day--at 1:00 PM, the only time that the sun actually peeked out from a barage of thunderstorms--and invited Kelsey and me to come.

I had originally wanted to go to the ceremony anyway. The journalist in me hates missing on-campus events, if only to keep up-to-date with what is going on.

So we marched over to the green space that has previously been the home field to the lacrosse and intramural frisbee teams. A crowd had already gathered, so we stood with some friends and watched as the shovels were distributed and words were spoken.

Afterward when Joel, Megan, and I were talking, a reporter from the local radio station came up to us. He had talked to Joel earlier about potentially interviewing a Dordt student about the groundbreaking.

"Would any of you guys be interested in being interviewed about living in East Campus?" asked the radio reporter.

"Uh, sure," I said slowly. I looked back and forth at Joel and Megan, who didn't seem too keen on the notion of being interviewed. I figured they'd come around once the interview started.

"Why not," I reiterated.

He smiled at me. "Okay. I gotta go talk to some people over there, but then I'll be back to talk with you."

In the meantime, a big group of us students walked over to the Campus Center to veg on some chocolate chip cookies and lemonade. We talked with Jaclyn for a while--she was working the info desk--when the reporter appeared again.

"Joel, you ready?" I asked as he came toward us.

The reporter overheard what I'd said. "You're the girl that I want to interview," he said pointedly.

Uh, what? I thought. This was supposed to be a group venture, not a single-out-Sarah thing.

As I stood there trying to think of what to say, I was reminded of the summer before when I interned as a news reporter for my home newspaper the Alton Telegraph. On a daily basis, I did exactly what this reporter was doing to me: put people on the spot and asked them pressing questions. I tried to get around the PR-sounding quotes to get to the real underlying story. By writing three or four stories a day, I got pretty good at schmoozing and interviewing.

But as the reporter asked me questions, I found myself becoming a reporter's worst nightmare. I said all the same blasé lines that I had hated to hear as a reporter. I waxed poetic a couple of times, looking more on the optomistic side of East Campus than admitting that there had been a lot of mold in the buildings.

"I'm really excited that my sisters will be able to live in the new building," I said. It is a true statement, but I'm also disappointed that I won't be able to live in the new building. I stuttered and said "like" at least sixty times during the entirety of the interview.

"I can't believe you didn't completely shoot down East Campus!" said one friend afterward. "If he'd asked me, I would have told him that those buildings are crap."

The people I interviewed always wanted to know when they would be in the newspaper. "It's a bit like being famous," most of my interviewees would say. And it's true; your words are read or heard by potentially thousands of people when you're interviewed. However, with that comes a lot of pressure to tell the truth.

I never really gave those I interviewed enough credit. And after hearing myself on the radio this morning, slightly stuttering and admitting that East Campus can "strain even the closest of friendships"--the best line I gave that reporter--I have a newfound respect for all those former interviewees of mine.