A monster in disguise: She who has been underrated

MONSTER. Jasmin Lorraine Tan answers questions about her success in the recent RHEPC in a mini press conference.

She is a ‘monster’.

For someone who is not involved in sports and yet won a gold medal in Sports Writing, she is a monster.

For someone who had been rejected to be part of a school paper three times in high school and yet recognized as the Individual Highest Pointer in a regional press conference after dominating in three categories, she is a monster.

For someone who edits articles until she loses her time to rest and sleep and yet manages to study until the sun sets making her a candidate for a Cum Laude award, she is a monster.

For someone who has been underrated, she continues to prove that she could be a monster achiever.

She was called a ‘monster’ by one of the judges in the 13^th Regional Higher Education Press Conference (RHEPC) organized by the Association of Tertiary School Paper Advisers in Region III (Atspar-III) after topping in DevComm Writing (English), Opinion Writing (English) and Sports Writing (English).

In fact, she was just a late replacement in two of the categories, DevComm Writing and Opinion Writing, because of a conflict in schedule and yet she still managed to make her way to victory.

She loves Sports Writing the most. For her, it is the action in sports that makes it her favourite because she can easily find good angles for her story.

Though she is not an athlete, reading is her way to gain understanding of sports. For her, knowledge comes before skill as an excellent writer cannot write anything when he knows nothing.

Also, she believes that what makes a story stand out over others is a unique angle. She shared that during the Sports Writing contest in the RHEPC, she sought for details which could form a different angle from the other competitors and that is the losses of some teams of BulSU despite being held as overall champion for the 17^th consecutive year in the recent State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association (SCUAA).

However, it was not all victory for her, she also experienced rejections. Back in high school, she tried to be part of their school paper three times and she was turned down thrice. She almost gave up her drive for writing until one of her teachers encouraged her to join a Speech Writing contest which fuelled up her desire again.

Also, during her first year in college and in the university publication, she said her articles for SCUAA which was then held in Bulacan State University (BulSU) were almost unrecognizable because of too much edits but she made this a motivation to double her efforts so that such experience will not happen again.

Nevertheless, the challenges did not stop there. She took charge of the highest post in the Pacesetter, the first editor-in-chief from her major, albeit she and her colleagues were collectively called “the weakest batch”.

For her, a person can cry any time he feels like giving up because of stress to relieve it. Also, she deems that one should always trust in God in times of trials because God will not give a person an obstacle he will not be able to surpass.

The university publication had been ranking second in the RHEPC for the last three years. They need the championship back; she had it in her mind since the start and they did it. She then believes that they have already redeemed themselves.

Being in her last year in college and yet, her success as a campus journalist and an editor-in-chief are not the only things to be admired because she is also running for the Cum Laude honor.

Though seemingly impossible for many students, she prioritizes her studies through working on it until the sun sets because that is when she does her editor-in-chief duties.

She also believes that being a journalism major gave her an advantage because she is always out to cover events and there she learned to be independent, to do things on her own way. Though things were rough and difficult at times, she said she was able to endure it because she likes what she does.

With that, she advises that a student should not stick with a course that he does not like, instead go for what he loves doing so he will not regret no matter how difficult it is.

As she is set to graduate this year, she plans to rest first before working for what she hopes a broadsheet or a sports magazine.

This monster is Jasmin Lorraine Tan, a 20-year old senior Journalism student in BulSU, editor-in-chief of the Pacesetter, despite the trials has kept viewing life optimistically as she never thought that God’s delays are God’s denials.