First Journal Entry

I am extremely excited to begin JMS 550, the class that marks the end of my undergrad career at SDSU and the beginning of my career as a journalist. This semester, I am hoping to lean more into my post-graduation aspiration of working for an arts and culture magazine in a major city.

For the entirety of my college experience, I have been expected to report on everything from politics to local crime, and along the way I have lost sight of why I majored in journalism to begin with. I have a passion for telling stories, and I have a passion for art and the people who find themselves entangled within the art. i-D Magazine and Wonderland became my own personal safe spaces in my initial stages of coming out in a largely homophobic hometown.

As a teenager, I imagined what it would be like to explore the vast and imaginative worlds that give voices to the oppressed. I knew going into this field that I didn’t want anything to do with the white, cisgender, male-dominated reality that is mainstream media. I didn’t want to have to fight to be taken seriously or try to claim a spot in a world that wasn’t mine. Instead, I wanted to seek a career in the safe space that cradled me during my most vulnerable moments, and I wanted to explore the diverse safe spaces that other people like me find themselves in to stay alive.

To me, journalism is about making those who are comfortable uncomfortable, and giving comfort to those who need it. It’s about telling the stories of people who desperately need their stories told, despite a world convincing them that their stories don’t matter. Funnily enough, this is also what art is to me, and music, and fashion. So, I think at this point in my academic career I deserve to give myself the grace I need to begin my pursuit of my definition of journalism. I hope that, during this semester, I will be able to focus on culture over breaking news so that I am better prepared as graduation looms.