Andrew Maddocks / DePauw University

The fellows saw blurry halos around the classroom lights as deadline neared. We were all a little slap happy that Tuesday night in May, and a live video stream from a Wendy’s drive-through was so cool and bizarre we couldn’t help but cluster around a computer screen and laugh.

But in those hours we poured all the energy we possibly could into defining our field. In clusters of five computers, every single person explored an uncharted digital realm. For me, it was SLR photography and editing. Marantz recording and audio editing. Others swore under their breath at Sound Slides or stared at the Final Cut Pro screen for tens of hours. Several got intimate with the tutorial guru Lynda.

We were working in the grey areas, thriving on all the hard questions, proving to ourselves we could do this new journalism.

I’m a big fan of a two-word phrase that I think describes our struggles and successes: Delicious ambiguity.

Maybe for some the ambiguity facing journalism — and the world — is overwhelming. But think about the experienced faculty we learned from at Poynter. Think about the mentors we have, those we found and the ones we’ll seek out. They’re excited to help.

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