Journalist in the making?!?

Since elementary, I was already a member of a Journalism club. It was not my choice to join the organization; it was just an accident. I became a member of it simply because I have good grades in both English and Filipino. Honestly, I am not into this stuff. I’m not good in writing essays, feature stories and news articles. Writing really is not my passion. But even if it wasn’t my cup of tea, I entered the world of journalism. Unexpectedly, I was one of the chosen few to represent my elementary school, Cebu Normal University, for the Press Conference. Some of the chosen students include my best friend named Jennifer Angela and my other two close friends namely Lorraine Tio and Stanley Noel. We were afraid when we knew that we will represent the school but we were also excited to do it for our school. I knew it would be one of my unforgettable experiences because joining such contest is an opportunity for you to show the world that you can bring honor not just to your school but also to yourself.

The Division Press Conference was held in Zapatera Elementary School last November of 2002. This was participated by different schools all over Cebu City and Cebu Province. I was the contestant in Copy reading and Headline Writing, Filipino Category. In this category, each of us will be given a news articles with errors on it’s content. We are tasked to edit the errors and afterwards, make a headline for the news article. Other categories also include Sports Writing, News Writing, Feature Writing, Editorial Making and Editorial Cartooning and Photo Journalism.

We were sent to different classrooms during the contest proper. During my contest, of course I got nervous. But when I read the news article, I find it easy. It was not challenging for me because it was just like a practice piece, which my coach always gives me during my free time. <> It was just easy for me maybe because I was really trained hard. Imagine yourself being excused from a class and then will let you copy read at least five articles a day. The training was worth it because I won First place. I received a trophy and a certification that I will be representing not just my school in the Regional Presscon but also the whole Cebu. All of my friends also won and we will all be going to the next round, which is the Regional Finals.

Bais City in Negros Oriental was our next destination. The Regional Presscon will be held there. We were very excited because we will be going out of Cebu. It was in December of 2002 when we went there. I think we stayed there for four days and three nights. It was my first time to be away from home without any family member around. From that experience, I learned how to be an independent person. I find it nice to be all by yourself sometimes because it will truly help you.

Before the start of the contest, we had a parade in the city. All the Cebuano representatives wore fuchsia pink shirts . It was a bad day for me because I was not feeling well at that time. I didn’t enjoy the activities as well as I wasn’t able to review for my tilt the next day. Because of lack of preparations, I was mentally-blocked during my contest. I cannot explain to myself why I was like that. Because of that, I was not able to concentrate with my contest piece, which results to not winning it. I was disappointed at that time that I was not able to bring fame to my school again. I was also shy to face my coach and my other friends who won heir category. I thought that they will be disappointed too but they showed me their support even if I didn’t won. They were still proud of me because I was able to reach the regional finals and only a few have the opportunity to join in. despite my failure in the contest, I was very thankful to God and to the people around me who supported me.

It was indeed one memorable event I experienced.