In college I started out with mass communications studies. I wasn’t sure where it would lead but it was interesting.
As it happened, the Intro to Mass Communications class was also the advisor for the college newspaper and at the end of class, he gave his come write for the paper shtick.
As I recall, (been a really long time) I was the only one in the class who was interested. I was interested…but he wasn’t and told me he didn’t think I could do the job.
I walked out of class and headed straight for the newspaper office. No, was not a word I was ready to hear. I intended to give it a try.
The editor immediately put me to work typing stories into the computer – knowing how to type was a big advantage. This was the early days of desktop publishing and articles were handed in and added to the layout later.
In newspaper publishing the articles are placed around the ads; which is why you make sure the important stuff is up front in case they need to crop it for space.
Any who…I typed stories into the computer for the editor to layout. And it didn’t take long before I was taking press releases and editing them into one and two column inch writeups. Nobody wanted that job, but I liked doing it.
Eventually, I got to do an article of my own. I still remember that article. I wrote about the disabled student services available for students on campus.
And, as they say, the rest is history.
That was over 35 years ago!
At the end of the year, the newspaper had a bid dinner and at that dinner in front of everybody, the advisor admitted to me that he was wrong for saying he didn’t think I could do the job!
The following year I changed schools and got on the newspaper staff. At the end of the year, I was given the most improved writer award.
I wonder if that advisor thought twice before telling another student interested in working at the newspaper no?