Trust me when I say that this question never popped up in mind ever. Until yesterday, when my junior abruptly asked me this and forced me to shed light some light on my inner dilemma that made me sign up for the Bachelors in Journalism degree at the university. Being in the sophomore year now, I sometimes watch my juniors running around, pretending to be a professional photographer or anchor on a news channel. I used to wonder what could have driven them to make this decision. But the tables were turned when she pushed me into the spotlight and I had to justify basically my entire life till now.
Growing up, I knew there were two things I wanted to do in my life: take photographs or write about them. Once I got to high school, I realized that the former wasn’t easily accessible as there were no university courses for photography in my country. I never let this stop my education and I continued learning on my own. But my dream of being the next Steve Mc Curry was squashed. So, I averted my attention to writing, which always gave me the same exact thrill as when clicking a photograph.
Writings have a huge economic and cultural impact in the world. Millions of people are unknowingly or obsessively in love with it and many kids nowadays are focusing towards writing and journalism. I wanted to be the person that relays information to millions of people. I want to be the person the people look up to every day knowing that they will get the most objective, honest, straight-to-the-point story. Being a journalist is an enthralling and a beautiful thing. I have the capacity to make people laugh with the words that I write or bring change in the way they think about certain subjects.
Many people say I’m crazy for trying to become a journalist in today’s economy. But I don’t think this way. I believe, in my heart, I will become one. I fell in love with it once I went to high school and there is no reason for me to believe I won’t achieve my goal. My English teacher always encouraged me to become a journalist because she saw the talent I had. It was good to know and confidence building that I had people‘s support, although I knew there were still people who doubt me including myself.
I want to know the ins and outs about my curious questions. I want to make phone calls, conduct interviews and talk to sources to inform my audience with the most accurate information possible. Journalism is evolving every day due to the increasing role of social networking, but one thing that can never change is the instant way in which it can connect people to today’s news. The passion I have for journalism and writing is so great, that I could just write for free. It’s the only job that I would love to do. I didn’t want to wake up every morning of my life dreading to go to work. Becoming a journalist gives you an opportunity to talk to those people everyone else won’t get to talk to. This industry is very competitive, but that’s exactly the way I love it because I’m also a highly competitive person. I embrace and ask for challenges and when thrown at me and I never back down. In this department, you can’t back down. When someone opens the newspaper, or click to read my writing, I want them to get the best possible information out there. I want them to be informed in such a way that they want to continue coming back for more. In journalism, there is always something new to write about. Becoming a journalist will always be my ultimate goal and no matter what obstacles will come in my way, I will walk right through them because I have faith in my passion.
Why would I want to be anything else by the way? To have the opportunity to gain and deliver knowledge to an audience and to experience new adventures seems like a no-brainer career to me.
