Writer’s Woe

Posted on by areadingwriter

photo-1434030216411-0b793f4b4173

I write
not because
it’s easy.

I write
because
it is what
I do
best.

—

©2016 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo credit: Green Chameleon

During our media event last night, I encountered two senior Journalism students. I immediately saw my old-self on them.

They possess high hopes, high dreams for a bright ‘real professional world’.

But there is also tinge of anxiety and insecurity brought by the discrimination they experienced even before they step into the brutal concrete jungle of working world.

The issue is just like what I have encountered before.

I graduate with honours, but as I am surrounded with cousins and friends who took ‘harder’ courses, they just shrug the ‘honour’ off saying it’s usual because Journalism is comparably an ‘easy’ course.

That poem is my answer to those who BELITTLE the study and the profession of writing.

I don’t mean to put ‘writers’ at the top hierarchy of the professional world nor put down such well-respected and really hard courses.

I am perfectly aware that writers are NEVER on the list of BEST-PAYING jobs.

Seldom are WRITERS who really get RICH because of their craft.

And in a third-world country like the Philippines, the journey towards becoming a legit writer/journalist, let me tell you, is like a walk in Jurassic Park! There are publication editors and owners who will NEVER  HIRE a Journalism graduate from a public university (like me, for instance).

I am frustrated and hurt to hear that a lot of students and a lot of professionals still look at WRITERS as somehow a second-class career or profession.

It is not just unfair, it is degrading.

So why I am writing this?

Because I want you all to know, that writing is NEVER EASY. We may not be good in Math nor in programming numbers, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use our brains.

I am hoping to not hear that phrase any more. This is not about me, this is about those youths aspiring to become WRITERS themselves.

Please let them start their career with a confident and brave hearts, ’cause the harsh world of Journalism will surely find ways to crush them.

~

 

Published by areadingwriter

I read because I write. | I write because I read.

33 thoughts on “Writer’s Woe”

  2. I believe this relates well to what my father probably had in mind. He called me Booky because he had a premonition that I’d become a writer. When I would choose a department of study in secondary school; inspire of my promising future as a writer, he convinced me to be a Science student. Today, I’m a Biology teacher and by the time I would realize that writing is a profession I am already in the second year of my university course. I won’t blame him, it is the perception of the Nigerian society. Until writers get their way by doing this (ie telling the world) we will remain second class citizens of the professional world. I wish you well my dear friend.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh Deb. That is actually my father’s thoughts too. When I graduated and was having a hard time having a job, he pushed me to apply in banks or other field and be a clerical officer instead. But yeah. I think I am a hard-headed daughter.
      Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Deb!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. It’s not just journalism that’s like that. Any job in the writing field I found that same prejudice. If you didn’t graduate from a Big Name Uni, (and I didn’t) they didn’t want to know you. That’s how I ended up working as a project manager in IT. I couldn’t get my foot in the door for journalism, PR, editing…you name it, I applied for it and got ignored/passed over/never called back. In a city (NY) where there’s more applicants than jobs, it’s dog-eat-dog. That’s why I don’t work in the field even though I have two degrees (bachelors and masters) and having worked several internships in college while all those students studying the “hard” stuff went out and partied. Oh well.

    I love my coworkers and I make decent money. I am underpaid for the work I do but without a degree in IT (which I have no intention of getting) or the certification as a project manager (not getting that either since it costs about 5 of my paychecks) this is the best I can do. You’re doing really well Rosema since you’re actually in the field! Kudos to you! You got further than I ever did 🙂

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    1. Oh! Thank you, Mel for sharing your own thoughts and experiences. I would really have to agree. Though I am surely a bit surprised to know that the same ‘not famous uni’ discrimination do happened in US, too. I always thought it is some kind of a third world country thing but I now know it isn’t. *sigh*
      Thank you for the WordPress then for letting us write like the writers that we hoped to become. 🙂 And s word go to those companies who ignored us! Haha

      Liked by 1 person

      1. You’re welcome 🙂 Though buck up, after you have been working for 5 years no one cares where you went to school because your work experience becomes way more important. So there is a bright side.

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  5. You’ve said it all Rosema. Writing is not easy and I don’t smile at anyone who tries to undermine the talent of any writer. Very annoying tendency of people who don’t know better. Without story tellers, the history of any nation is lost. Well said

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  6. I’ve been paid to teach and occasionally paid to write. When I taught Communication (which, as a discipline, includes Journalism), I learned that at the school and even among the students this was considered the easier major to go for and that what to do with it after school was vague. Yet when the Trade Center towers went down, this nation turned to poetry. That was the real and even measured response.

    Writing articulates life. It’s prized like education–except when offering jobs and careers to pay for it (as in funding education). You are right. Writing is hard. To do it well takes discipline, often self-defined and difficult. It takes investment. It takes need. And it takes precedence.

    Your verse above, which I treat as a credo, again says it right. Bless you, Rosema, for all your insight and all your labor.

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  7. I liked your poem and explanation. People always say journalism/English/writing are easy but I don’t believe that. If you have talent it is easier for you but in writing the marking is subjective and you learn to write for a particular audience (your prof) or students in your class. Learning how to read poetry or Shakespeare and understand it, isn’t easy either it takes work. So does writing long essays, long articles, and doing proper research. If you want to know what students honestly have it easy it’s the business students. My friends in business would tell you so. And just to mention, I lived next door to a Engineer in our old house, he told me that writing was an excellent field to go into. He was tired of years and years of engineering students who could not write a simple letter. He said places such as Engineering companies need people who can write, because the engineers certainly don’t know how.

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    1. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Mandi! I truly appreciate it. 🙂
      And yes. I agree. If there are some who belittle writing professionals, there are also some who give the credit that is due to our profession. Bless them. 😀

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  9. I hear you girl… Even in country like India it’s tough to be a writer, everyone thinks its so easy to write, yet they never try it themselves. Journalism is respected but only the news aspects not the ones who are into creative journalism or writing something because they feel like it… If you tell someone you are a writer they laugh first and then ask you if you are seriously considering a suicidal career in writing… :/ Sucks

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