Journalism

I like being a journalism student. I wear this badge with pride. Yes, I may complain about the workload, I may stress out several times a week. But I enjoy what I do. I'm learning so much about writing, reporting, researching and interviewing. Journalism has opened my eyes about the world. I'm grateful for this opportunity. To be able expand my knowledge, push my writing beyond bounds and challenge myself constantly is a true learning process.

This is an upbeat major, always requiring a story two days from now, always demanding that proper research be done before an interview or writing a story. Facts are severely important in journalism. Journalists are expected to deliver the truth to the public. So the slightest error reflects poorly on the journalist. A journalist's credibility is walking on a tight rope here, which is why journalism students are drilled about fact-checking.

It's not all cherries and sunshine in journalism. Sour grapes, bitter bananas and other unpleasant factors leave a bad taste in the mouths and minds of both journalists and readers. If you don't push yourself to reach new limits, the workload will.

This is a world where chasing deadlines becomes a routine and happiness is found at the end of a good article. This is a no-nonsense world, a world where you are constantly challenged to write and think critically while leaving your opinion out of the paper. After all, this is a paper for the public and they want to see the paper's opinion, not yours. Unless you're a columnist or something.

At the end of the day, it's about what you've learned and whether you were able to apply the essence of reporting, fact-checking and strong writing to your future careers. I don't intend on being a news reporter. In fact, I might disengage myself from newspapers or news outlets once I'm done with college.

I'm not contradicting myself here. I like journalism, but I know what I want to pursue after college. I want to go into magazines. I want to explore my creativity through feature stories, photography and traveling. I'll use everything I've learned in journalism to help me get there. Journalism is a useful skill, it's an important and effective way of storytelling. It may be more rigid as opposed to feature writing, but nevertheless, it has shaped me to be the writer I am, and I hope it will continue shaping me into the writer I want to be.

I used to dislike the rigidness of journalism when I first joined its league. I rolled the idea of switching majors in my mind. I thought about Creative Writing and took several classes in it. I'm still in Creative writing but I've made it a minor.

I often get the "Oh gosh, you must be swamped with writing assignments!" gasp when I tell people I'm a journalism major and creative writing minor. I'll just nod, smile and sigh, "Yeah. That's absolutely true."

There's no way around the assignments. Writing is a huge part of my degree. The workload is often heavy, but it's not that bad. I've coped so far and I'm sure I'll make it through this semester and the next. :)

Don't let anyone tell you that journalism is a boring field, because it's not. It may not appeal to you if you dislike writing, but nothing really stays the same in journalism. Each class differs from the rest. Yes, there may be some dull prerequisites (Media Law and Ethics was one, but I only had to take it once, so that's fine) but once you write for the student papers, you're exposed to various events on campus. You start going for events you normally wouldn't go, like a pageant show or a standup comedy act. And you meet various people along the way, people you never would have met if you hadn't worked on the assignment.

Journalism has plenty to offer, but it also requires dedication and determination. If you're going to do something, finish it.

I don't know if I'll end up as a journalist. But I do know that I don't regret entering it.