Reznet

My internship is nearing an end and I've been thinking about what I've learned while I've been here. I've learned a lot, but it hasn't been what I thought I'd learn.

Here's some examples:

- When covering pig wrestling, you will get covered in mud. Hours later, you'll still be picking it out of your hair.

- When a pig enters a mud wrestling pit, it will almost always immediately urinate or defecate. Sometimes both. This will then mix with the mud, which will surely end up all over you.

I've only been in the small community of Hot Springs, S.D., for one week and already I feel connected.

I'm covering the Alabaugh Fire today and found out that a gentleman from here died in the blaze. This man -- if the reports I've heard are correct -- is the same man that I talked to earlier this week while taking photos of the Fourth of July activities.

I was shocked when I found out he died. I didn't know him well, but I did know him. That probably wouldn't have happened in Missoula, Mont., and it sure as hell wouldn't happen in Denver, my new home.

"38 miles to Hot Springs"

That's when I allowed myself to start crying.

I'd missed my son, Egan, horribly during the three weeks at AIJI, but I tried not to really think about him. I knew I missed him -- he creeped into my thoughts daily -- but I didn't allow myself to really give into the intense feelings that were surely there.

I couldn't.

I had way too much going on at the institute and I knew I needed to focus. After all, what lessons I take from AIJI will affect Egan for the rest of his life.

VERMILLION -- For Sandra White Shield, the American Indian Journalism Institute has served as a rebirth.

“I view this as being a turning point in my life,” said White Shield, a resident of Porcupine, S.D. “I’ve always been interested in writing and I saw this as an opportunity to further something I had already started.”

White Shield applied to the institute after watching a film about it in one of the classes she attends at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, S.D., but didn’t think she’d be accepted or that she’d be able to get time off work to attend.