Cause they Don't understand!

Many of my friends and family members have not known clearly, for all these years, the enormous sacrifice being a member of a weekly student publication. If I have to slap words on their faces and tell them how hard it is to catch up 3 deadlines for your class, and meeting at the same time deadlines of 3 articles for the paper, all in a day, they might realize that a student-journalist like me is dealing on a really serious shit all day.

It is because some of them have not experienced such a stressful yet rich life in college being a student-journalist of, to note, one of three weekly student papers in the Philippines.

And I grieve with them… yet I can’t blame them.

But such rants from people either regarding topics we write in the publication, or regarding the nights I come home late or why I slept in the office that may have remained dubious to them, or the busyness I’m into that I could no longer spend time chillaxing with my peers (mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and all these are irritating me badly. I came to ask, why couldn’t these people understand our work – why couldn’t these people open their eyes and see what I see?

Before I tell you how I realized things, I acknowledge the fact that I’ve been delinquent in the publication that I, in fact, instead of getting a higher rank, was dethroned from an editorial position to a not-so-editorial position when classes opened this school year (that is, assistant features editor). But no biggie! I know writing for the student and informing them of your views doesn’t demand you to be in an editorial position. And simply, I do not need an editorial position since then.

Yes, I might be delinquent in the publication since my first year, but I know that as years have gone by, obliviously, the publication shaped me into the person I never was before -something that I want these people to know. My nationality was kindled through the paper, notwithstanding the many enhancements it has done to my personality, speaking and writing communication, human relations, school spirit, and your awareness toward local and national issues, even computer literacy (I knew how to get pimples and scars off your photo in Adobe, anyway - but i very seldom do it. =))

Above all and all, my burning love to be part of the team rooted from how it has enhanced my knowledge on things I have never learn in the four walls of my many classrooms – something that pays great dividends, for me.

Now how would I explain to a family member the reason why I come home late at night, when my mere redundant is that i stayed in the office? How could I ever explain to my ranting friend who wants me to go drinking with them when I was attending the meeting? And how could I reason out why we have to write about the putrid smell of our school canals to an unintelligible teacher who doesn’t even know what press freedom is – and how we fight for it?