The New Kid on the News Block

  First off, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Boyoung Kim, and I am currently a sophomore at Dongguk University majoring in English Translation & Interpretation. I have been working at the Dongguk Post as a reporter since March 2023. I have been participating in post-editing since the 456th newspaper and have been writing articles since the 457th. After working as a cub reporter for a semester, I am now moving on to work as an official post reporter. Here in my post reporter debut essay, I would like to tell you my thoughts behind joining the Dongguk Post, the struggles I had, and the things I have gained.

  Growing up, my passion was always to read and write. Even after coming to university, midnight journaling and visiting book stores, being buried in books all day, felt therapeutic to me. Therefore, I have always been interested in being a reporter for the school newspaper, and presenting my writings to a vast audience. However, during my freshmen year, I was not confident with my writing skills yet, because until then, I was only used to writing personal things, such as journals. Also, the idea of joining a school newspaper organization seemed quite intimidating to me. Thankfully, throughout the courses I took, I got chances to practice writing in a public manner through the countless essays/reports I had to write. So, in my sophomore year, I went for the role, and here I am.

  There were not as many struggles as I expected there to be, maybe because I tend to overthink, or maybe because I tend to underestimate myself-or maybe because I did both (ha ha)-but the ones I had were mainly focused on choosing topics. I noticed a trait of mine while working at the Dongguk Post and throughout taking writing related courses. It was that I struggled hard to come up with topics to write about. So, for me, the fact that I had to come up with multiple topic ideas for every newspaper edition was a real struggle. However, after trying to find the solution to this, I developed a habit of writing short notes whenever an idea pops up in my head, and organize them at the end of the day. As I tried to expand my short note-taking habit from brainstorming topic ideas to daily life, my life became unexpectedly more organized. I guess I got lucky, hitting two birds with one stone.

  Other than unintentionally getting my life organized, I also gained a habit of being curious about everything, because I tried so hard to think of topic ideas. I began to be more curious about things in our everyday life, constantly wondering if it could become a topic to write about in the newspaper.

  I have a year and a half more to go till I finish my term of office. It seems like a long way, but I know time is going to fly, just like it did for my first semester at the Dongguk Post. I hope at the end of it, I can be looking back again at this debut essay thinking all the struggle, effort, and time I devoted was all worth it. But I will not be gone soon, so stay tuned.