WHY DID I take up AB Journalism?
I was in sixth grade when I first applied in the campus press. I became a reporter. In my second year of high school, I became editor in chief.
To my disappointment, in fourth year, I was suddenly replaced by a junior. It was also the same time that our school paper adviser was replaced. But I continued working for the publication.
I kept things at bay and bottled my disappointment just to give way to the decision of the “grown-ups.” But as Antoine de Saint Exupéry writes in his famous The Little Prince, “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.” Indeed, at a young age, I knew there was hope amid my failed expectations.
Here in UST, I took up AB Journalism and became a news writer of the Varsitarian, a good training ground for journalism aspirants.
I met new friends, went to places I had never been, and covered varied and significant events on and off campus.
In the Varsitarian, I was able to practice the real thing.
I learned how to report accurately and objectively. There’s no positive or negative side to a story or a personality; what matters is reporting an event or a celebrity factually and fairly.
With effort and perseverance, I became news editor.
Honestly, there are thousands of Thomasians who are more eligible to be part of the “V” and become editors, but I admit that I was just one lucky student.
Now, my college experience is about to end, so does my term as a campus journalist. It is now time for the younger writers to step up and apply what I, along with my co-editors, have imparted to them.
I am eternally grateful for my college friends, who stayed with me and never held my busy schedule and personality against me.
My gratitude also extends to a few college mentors and professors, who believed in me and my abilities.
Of course, I am thankful to my parents who have been supportive since day one; I would not have set foot in UST without their effort.
As I prepare myself for the bigger world out there, I finally get to answer the question earlier, “Why journalism?”
I took it up not merely because of passion, not because it is where I excelled at during high school, not because it was my parents’ wish, among others, but because I have witnessed enough and I know that I and other people all have a story to tell.
