By Micah Abad, Staff writer
Taking Journalism as a freshman isn’t an easy elective. Adjusting myself, stepping way out of my comfort zone, and having to learn the same things as upperclassmen are all things I’ve had to learn to deal with. But now that we’re almost through the semester, I’m finally feeling a bit better about this class. As time has progressed, I feel like this was a good choice for me. A space where I can write, learn, and get a little more involved. This class definitely isn’t a traditional get to know each other and work all together, it’s more so learning together and choosing your own way. At the start, I felt a bit lonely because I couldn’t talk to anyone like I try to do in all my other classes. I accompanied that feeling of loneliness with music. When the next quarter started, I started to like it. It felt like a break from the day where all I had to do was write and get posts in.
What started from excitement that led to a nerve racking first day of school. I transferred here in the second week of school. That alone was tough. Finding all my classes when everyone else already knew where their classes are and adjusting to whatever all my classes were doing despite not knowing what it’s even about. When I walked into journalism that’s when that nervous feeling got worse. I was looking forward to learning about journalism and making new friends that share an interest in writing like me. That was until my counselor told me I’ll be the only freshman.
That feeling of being a new student coming into a whole new environment, especially in a class where you’re the only freshman, is just a different type of nervousness. I knew I wasn’t going to get bullied or anything like that, I just thought people in this class wouldn’t like me because I’m a freshman. I transferred here in the second week, so I caught up and did a group project. After we split and started our own things I stopped talking to them because I didn’t want to seem weird. I’ll make small conversation with one of them time by time and if I had questions I’d ask the other two. It’s rare for a student to have to distance herself from her class because she feels too different. Almost as if she doesn’t fit in.
I still remember how hard it was to get my first post in for the first round of stories to get published. In journalism, each quarter you are to post 3 stories on the press page every 2 weeks. I had two stories that failed because of how hard it was to schedule an interview and getting a chunk of information from a couple students in a span of half a week. I felt scared walking to the counselors office knowing I’m probably disturbing the front desk. Even asking around to get information from students was scary for me. Mr. Lee then suggested that I do photojournalism at the college fair. I thought since it’s photojournalism it’ll be easier because it’s taking a bunch of pictures and writing a caption for each. It didn’t come to my mind that I had to go up to each booth and ask if I could take a picture of them. Can you imagine some random girl awkwardly asking you if she could take a picture of you for the Galileo Press page. I felt like such a weirdo.
Even after finishing my first post, my feelings for this class definitely didn’t change overnight. It was nerve wracking having to talk to random people or especially teachers to schedule or go through an interview. I can tell you that it took me almost a whole semester to feel a little comfortable in this class. But after my second post I started to appreciate the flexibility of the class. Just getting through a 2 week deadline and getting to do my own things like homework afterwards made me realize this class isn’t as bad as I thought.
As we’re close to finishing this semester, I can say I’ve learned a lot of life skills to push me into the social setting. I started journalism as a shy, scared and anti-social. I see an improvement in myself when it comes to talking to other people. When I complete journalism I will gain the knowledge that I will need in possible future classes.
