Looking Glass [dec 2018]

Chapter 4 - Ravishing looks and Favourite foods [Part 2]

"How is everyone, today?" The lady standing at the front was dressed in a presentable formal black dress and fall dark maroon flats. On the bridge of her nose were a pair or dark rimmed glasses that brought out the blue of her eyes.

The auditorium echoed with various answers. Although it was a drowsy morning, Alexis sat at the brink of her seat. Her eyes were peeled as she took in the lady standing up front. Alexis was giving all of her attention to her. Her mind was racing with all the questions she had for her. Alexis chanced upon her articles once and was hooked ever since. She was inspirational. Alexis had even enquired about her existence to Kreg, who shrugged her off. Ginny Gavinsky.

"Before I start, I would like to thank Prof. Kronolav for inviting me back. I have missed waking up at ungodly hours, downing several cups of coffee and sitting amidst these four walls," Ginny pause as the auditorium was filled with muffled laughter. "I have truly missed it and I urge everyone of you sitting before me to cherish every lesson spent here.

"Now, getting to the reason I'm here. Journalism. Each and every one of us will have a different definition of journalism. Today, I stand before you to share my take on journalism. Journalism is the art of stringing together different words to convey a certain picture and feeling to a reader. It is an art that does not develop overnight. Oh hell, no. How I wished it did.. It would reduce the number of Fs and Cs I received!" Ginny grinned as several of us burst into laughter.

"Journalism, as I said, is something that needs continual nurturing. It needs guidance, time and effort. Most importantly, it requires passion. Everyone of us here has a way with words. That, unfortunately, does not mean you have a way with journalism. See, journalism isn't the nonchalant act of documenting something. Far from it. It's the words bring fit together with passion laced around them, holding them together. Journalism is much like a jigsaw puzzle where only certain words will work well together. I began understanding this a couple of months into this course." Ginny went on, defining journalism with such grace that many sat unblinking as they absorbed everything.

"Lastly, before I take your questions, allow me to share with you the article that resulted in the journalism spark in me to grow into a full on fire. Being a journalist in the school's paper, I'm often on my toes trying to seep out all the interesting gossips and stories and writing them out. My job becomes boring when all I'm writing about is the new love interest. One fine day, something terribly wrong happened and I was drawn to it like moth to a flame. The science laboratory had fire spewing out of its windows and its door were thrown open by stumbling and choking teenagers. Some of them were my batchmates, some were my friends. It was a horrible event indeed.

"Day in day out, I chide myself for wishing something juicy will occur within the school compound. Everyone survived, thankfully, but one is still in coma. This article made me realise that silence is not necessarily a bad thing. It also brought to my attention the duty of a journalist - an extremely important duty of informing people with the right information and extinguishing every rumour. The fire became a hot topic of the school and soon enough, many rumours had surfaced. I was enraged when many were pinpointing my friends for starting the fire when officials had investigated and closed the case as an accident. This rage was turned into passion as I wrote the article, successfully minimising the number of false rumours floating around. With that being said, I thank you for your time and leave you with a quote that I hold dear to me: The courage in journalism is sticking up for the unpopular, not the popular."

Ginny's ending words were met with loud applauds and a standing ovation from a few. Prof. Kronolav wiped a stray tear as she descended the steps to stand by Ginny. Giving her a side hug, she faced the students.