"Sorry, not tonight dear. I am on deadline."

"Feels like your pilgrimage to Mecca, huh?" my dad asked.

I am not Muslim. But he was on to something.

This past weekend I went home. It was not my Spring Break, nor did I have a job interview.

I went home to take care of some long overdue work. I went home to finally go to the Newseum.

I have known since I was 13 that I wanted to be a journalist. The details were hazy, but I knew I loved to write. The Newseum opened in Rosslyn, Va. around that same time (1997) but for whatever reason I never managed to head downtown and visit it. (note: The Newseum moved to its current location on Pennsylvania Avenue a year ago.)

So my trip Sunday was a long-time coming.

I went with my parents and sister Chelsea, whom have a basic interest in news. Nothing extraordinary. They read the news, each with a varying interest and publication loyalty.

I should have known that I would be holding up the group.

I seriously felt as if I was a child in a candy store. Granted, I had learned the basic history of communication in a few of my Newhouse courses (COM107, COM505), but some of the coverage and artifacts the museum had were incredible.

One section had actual pieces of the Berlin wall. One section had the radio antennae that was on the top of the World Trade Center and was recovered from ground zero. One section had a various newspaper A1s from important world events.

I felt most inspired the the individual stories of fearless or accomplished journalists. Their documentary videos or exhibits illustrated their passion for reporting and championship of journalism--real reality checks and reminders of why I love journalism so much.

The fam and I also got to hear Newsweek editor Evan Thomas' involvement in campaign coverage, specifically his time spent on Obama. Three things I came away with? If you do not want to ask hard questions, journalism is not and will never be for you. Competence is not sexy. Reporters were not the ones with a huge crush on Obama; it was their editors.

I am going to have to go back and spend literally the entire day. I probably was able to really take in about 40% of the entire place. Luckily, I only live a hop, skip and a jump from it. I could even move in to the apartments attached to it. That might be a little too much..

Fun things I bought: a t-shirt that says, "Sorry, not tonight dear. I am on deadline." and a pen that says, "Trust me. I am a reporter."

Josh said that there will only be about 20 people who will appreciate them. And those are the handful of people I want to meet and befriend.