Blog: Life as a student journalist in T3

I hear the bell go off and a second later everyone is storming out of math. They’re mildly excited mainly because it’s the last period of the day, and they’re a little tired because of work and getting up.

I trot down the hallway as people rush to their eighth period class. As I walk, I see a couple of old friends of mine and greet them and then get going on to the last period.

Some people speed past me, likely going to be late for class. At last, I see the ramp as people walk up the ramp. Some of them are one of me and others are our friendly neighbors in the Japanese class. I feel excited as I walk up that ramp.

As I enter T3 I take a look around and see people chatting with each other. But the main thing that attracts my eyes a lot of the time is the board. The board usually has a Do Now and other stuff that we need to do.

I take a seat, get out my notebook and start putting stuff down to the thin lined paper. The bell rings for the second last time and everyone starts doing the Do Now. Sometimes the Do Now is a grammar question, but usually we think about article topics and share them.

When the Do Now is done there is usually a lesson, but not anymore — now it’s just getting work done and how to do it. Our teacher usually tells us a couple of more things and then we head off to work.

Immediately the keyboard clicks start to resonate. Tap, tap, tap, tap some of the sound was coming from me too because I immediately got to work.

I stare at my computer screen thinking what I can type next. Every word that I type is picked specially by me, I want to make sure every word is phrased majestically.  

After a while my fingers start to hurt. I take a little break, and then shrug it off by cracking my knuckles.

I take a look around me and every student is doing the same. Hard work and making sure they phrase everything greatly. T3 is a classroom where everyone works hard. It’s like a work place, everyone is on their computer typing away.

After a little bit the class gets loud, and we usually have to be told to quiet down. The thing is most of our class is really social and everyone loves to talk including me.

We all work as a team giving suggestions to one another. We’re considered media in RCMS because we’re the ones who are giving out the news and information.

At around 1:45, I am completely worn out from all of that typing. It’s hard typing and sitting down for that long isn’t easy. And on top of that you have to stare at a screen. But it’s fun and certainly better than not having fun and getting tired.

Whenever I start typing it’s fun to see what I can come up with. I can come up with something spicy that can hook a reader like you. Or a word that’s concise and simple that makes it powerful.

Words are very powerful in journalism; one word can hook a reader, and another can make you reader click off your article. If your words don’t have a little kick to it, your reader may not enjoy the article. But the spicy words are the ones that will hook a reader.

And you need to be mentally strong to be able to write a good article. One time someone wrote one in one day. I can only imagine how much effort was required to achieve that.

At around 2:10 we start to pack up, the announcements come over the PA and we all stop what we are doing. Then we start again once it’s over.

We line up at the door and the bell rings for the last time. We’re leaving T3 to get home on our bus. The thing is I don’t want to leave T3 once the semester is over. But I don’t have a choice, I walk down the ramp to get ready for the next day.