Jounalist or not? A wordsmith? Bet I’m not!

There are some things you’re sure about.

There are some things that you’re not.

There are some things that you knew about but wish you did not.

But this is not one of those. I am not a journalist nor a wordsmith.

When I started writing on my personal blog way back 2008, few of my readers asked me where I learned the craft of my writing style. I often told them that I just love to write even though I’m not that good in composition and all those stuffs. Until someone asked me out of nowhere if I happened to be a member of a student press.

Well, I had this personality of keeping things about me from others by the thought that nothing is special about them. I used to think that there’s nothing special about it and not interesting to talk about. Simply put, I am taciturn.

I was hesitant to answer so I answered the question with an interrogation, asking why out of nowhere they asked me questions like that. And most of their answers point to my style of writing. “Yes! I was!”, I answered bluntly. Funny thing was that when I said I was a student press member before in my High school years, they further confirmed if I was a feature writer. “Why the hell they had an idea?” was in my mind.

They told me that I seemed to be a feature writer based on my articles.They even noticed the sentence construction, choice of words and paragraph composition of my works and how I presented my thoughts. Then I figured out, they must be a student press member or an aspiring journalist too. And I was glad to have my surmise confirmed!

Lately when I started to write again for my adventures, I encountered comparable inquiries pertaining to my write ups. One of them was my officemate (妹さん) who inferred that I was a feature writer before but can’t really figure out if I was just a feature writer. I said I was and it was like deja vu all over again. And I was glad that she did appreciate my works and relate with my style of portraying thoughts through words.

Yes, I was a student Press member. My core skill in journalism is feature writing that is why I am so meticulous in choosing the right words to convey my thought in my works.

Freshman     : Feature Writer
Sophomore : Feature & Sports Writer
Junior            : Photo Journalist, Feature writer and Assoc Editor-in-Chief
Senior    : Editor-in-Chief, Feature writer and Poetry Section Writer (Narrative Journalism)

I was trying to go away from that style of writing, and just want to write with the free flow of idea coming out from my mind.  But I can’t totally change and conceal what’s really instilled within me for a very long time. As they say, “why do you need to do it that way when you know the better way?” I don’t really think that my way of writing now is better than anyone else’s, but I guess that helped me a lot.

But writing now is a bit difficult, my grammar is a bit deplorable. But I must thrive. Everything is in progress!

There are few realizations that I got from these.

– “You can never hide and deny what you already had, it will catch up to you sooner or later!”

– “You can never forget what you have learned, you may lose track of some details but still you got it!”

– “It takes one to know one!” is really working most of the time.

Even when I was trained and took journalism classes and workshops but that does not made me a journalist. Even though I am very meticulous in choosing my words that does not mean I’m a wordsmith.
And even when I wrote articles, journals, etc that does not mean I am an “exemplary” writer. At least not yet! 🙂