On the 5th of December, there was a journalism scholarship talk I was gonna go for. Sadly, I had to go alone lol The only other person whom I knew was at least a little interested in journalism, was away for the holidays for a really long time, so I just had to make do and go by myself. Still, it was kinda cool to go by myself. I don't think I've ever gone out alone. If I do, it's usually to meet someone else, but this was kinda surreal and exciting in some way. (Don't judge me.)
The journey there wasn't so bad: there was a straight bus from my house; but you know me, I cam somehow mess up the smallest of things. I saw what I thought was my stop, but my reaction time was too slow to get up and alight. That turned out okay, because my actual stop was the one after it. And the same thing happened again. Okay, nevermind, I just need to get off at the next stop and walk back maybe! The bus went round a curve along a highway, before going back into residential area. I had to make do with stopping there, crossed over, and took the same bus back to the actual place. I guess it could have gone worse, but yeah, waste of time and worrying haha orz Anyway, I got to where I needed to be, asked where the talk was being held, and made my way to the place.
It was kinda daunting at first. The little foyer in front was empty, with a few staff on site. I wondered if that was the right place, and it was, when they ushered me into a small little hall with rows of seats. I didn't really pay much attention to my surroundings, I was too busy being nervous, as a lady told me to fill in the seats of the front row. Fair enough, until I realised I was visible, and in the line of sight of the speakers. Wow, okay they can see me, no biggie ;w;
A couple of videos of staff members and previous scholarship recipients played on loop, recounting their experiences and what it meant to be a journalist. There were two grammatical errors, and I couldn't believe it. ["A lot" isn't "alot" and it's not "adrenenline" omg] Most of the recounts by the scholars were of their experience covering small stories, that people wouldn't really know or care about. At first I thought that was kind of pointless, but then again that was what journalism is about: bringing stories to people so that they would care about such things. Later on, other questions popped into my head, like, "why am I here? Do I really want to do journalism?"
I thought I knew what journalism is. After watching "Kill The Messenger" about that journalist who exposed the truth behind the introduction of drugs into America, I knew that journalism is about bringing the truth to the people, and letting them come to their own conclusions. It's about educating the public, providing them with information from all perspectives and letting them decide for themselves. I suppose what they stressed in the talk was more about story-telling, which is important in it's own way, too. Additionally, they talked about how journalists tend to shift to different areas of journalism after a few years, which is kinda cool, but at the same time, not quite what I had imagined. My dad told me that what they look for in journalists, is an area of expertise. I'm pretty sure that if you cover politics or economics, you would need to understand all the jargon and terms before you translate them into something simpler and easier to understand for the general public. I should have taken the Q&A session to ask about scientific journalism, but I didn't know what exactly I wanted to ask ;w;
Anyway, after the whole session was some tea catered outside, and maybe I should have taken the opportunity to ask about application requirements, like whether I needed teacher references, and when was the closing date, but I got too scared. What made it worse was when I was thinking of getting some food (free, yey!) but then I two J1s caught my attention and gave me a general indication of recognition and I immediately nope'd out of there. I didn't want to stay around after that.
It was around 4, coming to 5, when I was at the bus stop. I could take the bus all the way back home, but I thought that since I was out, I might as well look for the Coldplay CD I wanted ;w; But, with the building being in the middle of almost nowhere except residences, it was hard to do so. I took a bus to a stop that I recognised near school, but didn't really know where to go from there. I ended up taking a bus to the place where I lost my EZ-link card, in the hopes of finding it. I had to walk across the overhead bridge with the sun setting, directly in my eyes, and since the bridge is pretty high up, it was blinding ono Once I got to the shopping centre, the bank was closed at 4.30. Had I gone earlier, I wouldn't have made it in time anyway. I just had to make my way home.
Wednesday was my next trial. My dad managed to schedule a meeting with one of his school friends who currently works in the laboratories at NUS, and he thought that if I'm doing biological/biomedical sciences, I should get a feel of real laboratory work first. Nothing went wrong during the meeting, I think it was pretty okay. There was even a little introduction and walk around the labs, which were a lot smaller and cluttered than I thought. My dad poked me to ask questions, which is still very awkward for me, when people are around LOL I don't know, I wasn't particularly inquisitive or curious (and how can I ever be a journalist like that, omg)
The most strenuous part about the whole thing though, wasn't the meeting, but the fact I had no socks on. My mum told me to wear something formal but comfortable - and anything with "formal" in them means, one of my black shoes. Those black shoes that haven't been broken in and are still stiff and uncomfortable. I would have been fine if I had my socks, but they weren't dry. So, I just had to settle with going sock-less. Bad idea.
My dad parked at his office nearby and said we could walk to the place. It was further than he expected. Then we almost got lost because the campus is so big, so he was concerned that I couldn't find my way home. (That was the initial plan see, he'd drop me off, and then let me go home by myself c:) While we were walking, my shoe kept popping off, which was really annoying and troublesome. I couldn't help but curse under my breath. I hope my dad didn't hear that, but he knew it was causing me trouble. When everything was over, he decided to take me to the train station and wait for him at one of the stations nearer where he parked the car, and then I could wait for him there to pick me up. In the end, that was okay c: (yey dad)
Well, that has been my journey so far. I guess you could include my oral surgery as part of this since that's pretty daunting on its own, but that's for another post. And maybe I shouldn't call these posts "adulthood", or specifically relate it to becoming an adult. I feel like that just makes it larger than it really is. I mean yes, it is in some way, part of my growth to become independent, but at the same time, I need to approach it from an angle in which I don't see it as troublesome or fearsome. I don't know, I'll figure it out when I'm in less pain right now.
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