It’s 2:21 a.m., a Thursday night, a cold Thursday night (it’s really Friday morning) and instead of sleeping in my bed, I’m thinking about the energy potential lying 8,000 feet beneath the ground– approximately six Empire State Buildings away from my lime green couch.

Why am I thinking about this at 2 a.m.? Because it’s down to crunch time and I, my friends, am behind.

For the past 3 months I’ve worked on a story about what’s in store for North Carolina if the state passes legislation legalizing the natural gas-obtaining method known as hydraulic fracking. Today, I realized that I have less than two weeks to turn in a semester-long project that has faced its fair share of bump-ups.

Here are a few things I learned along the way — some tips that might just help future class-takers power a nation someday.

1.Procrastination will never be a true friend in the end.

2.When a senator says he’ll call you back, chances are slim to none that he will. Pick up the phone.

3.Having that third bourbon and coke on a Thursday night at Linda’s will only make 9 a.m. Fridays harder.

4.If you’re struggling for ideas, go for a walk, a run or just take a break.

5.Set your goals high, but always have a back-up plan.

6.Don’t be afraid to start over.

7.Push yourself.

~Isabella Cochrane

Freelancing scares me a bit, makes me anxious. Aside from inspiration, the readings we did for this week's class also provided some cynicism, which I generally appreciate but can also be triggered by. It's inspiring that writers can work like choosey bees, flying from hive to hive without having to commit all their energy to one; it's anxiety-producing that writers can find themselves spending whole days by themselves, drifting in and out of thought and becoming preoccupied with whatever those thoughts carry. As writers or journalists, we find ourselves naturally gravitating toward stories and storytelling, so it makes sense that this social isolation would trigger many things, not least of all a desperation to reach out to other human beings.

So, I probably won't be a freelancer exclusively, most likely. But it is good to know that I'm not the only one who needs human interaction, and a good amount of it, to sustain some degree of sanity.

~Erin Sagen