I stopped by the Inquirer lab in August before heading off to Iran with my father for my first trip ever to the country of his birth, a place he hadn’t seen in over 20 years.
I knew the trip would be a journey of discovery, and I wanted to see if I could write a piece about my time there for the student newspaper.
The faculty adviser told me to join the staff when I got back. And I did just that.
Returning with over a thousand pictures and memories of everything from shopping to making new friends I walked into the Inquirer lab nervous about how quickly I would adapt to being a member of the staff.
After all, more than a month of the semester had already passed
But everyone was very welcoming. And the ice was broken after I got to know names and positions and began working with some of them on assignments.
I had always been interested in writing as a career, since English and writing courses were my strongest subjects. And as of lately, I had chosen communications to be my major.
As an Inquirer staff writer I was put on various assignments ranging from covering sports to a conference on the DVC Veterans Club, a choir concert, and a broadcasting class – all of this in addition to compiling my feature on my time in Iran.
The experience let me know how journalists in the field get their start.
Perhaps the hardest but most necessary adaptation was the concept of deadlines. They are so crucial, and no slack is cut for procrastination. In the class, you’ll get a bad grade for missing a deadline, but in the actual field you’ll get fired.
You must keep up with what you must turn in; otherwise, come production day you will never see the sun.
And then there is the production day itself. It’s an all day-er, and you might as well bring your toiletries and another set of clothes, because the lab is your home on production day.
The Inquirer is a bi-weekly. Just imagine the staff at a daily newspaper, where every day is production day.
The time put in to the newspaper is demanding, but it all counts, and it all pays off.
Sure your stories have to get edited, and sometimes there just isn’t enough room to say what you really want to say. And sometimes you get outvoted on the picture you want to represent your story.
But nothing compares to seeing your story in print, especially if you can ever get the front page.
And in the end, being on the Inquirer builds your skills as a writer, photographer, team player and communicator.