Below the fold, in over our heads

Framingham State’s Board of Trustees held its first meeting of the 2019-20 Academic Year Sept. 25 in the Alumni Room.

Yikes.

The Alumni Room where the Board of Trustees meeting took place.

Only a day following my first journalistic failure, I was called to cover the Board of Trustees meeting (one of the most difficult college meetings to cover), though it was with the Assistant News Editor and guidance from the News Editor at the time.

Both the Assistant News Editor and I were new to news writing and did not have any idea what we were doing, but it was OK because we would have help.

Or so we thought.

At the start of the meeting many Gatepost staffers were present in honor of our Editor-in-Chief having received “Student-in-the-Spotlight” - an honor the Trustees bestow every time they meet.

However, following the end of her speech, everyone left the meeting, including our News Editor.

Gulping, my co-writer and I knew we were in for it. The article was due at 6:30 p.m. the following day.

Balancing our phones on our knees while scribbling notes into our steno pads - we persisted - unaware of what was even being discussed or who was even doing the discussing for that matter.

The meeting concluded at sometime past 9:00 p.m. and we needed a place to begin our work.

As new Gatepost staff members, we did not have access to the office. With one of us being a commuter and the other having a roommate, we decided to work in the University’s commuter lounge.

With our phone storages filled to the brim with muffled audio and our notepads with illegible handwriting, we sat down - clueless of what to do next.

And, of course, what we did do next we would come to regret for a very long time. We decided our first step was an attempt at transcribing the entire two-hour meeting.

However, we agreed one would transcribe the first half and the other the second half, that would obviously make it easier - right?

Wrong.

Much too late, we began to realize transcribing the meeting was a lost cause.

This was when we made our first attempt at writing, but the cold September night was finally getting to us.

Our fingers, numb from the cold, could hardly press the keys that were hardly forming sentences.

We needed to change location.

The new vending machines that replaced those used in 2019.

Hungry, we decided to stop by the vending machine for a snack. We bought a package of cookies that - of course - became stuck in the machine.

With gurgling stomachs and enough stubbornness, we pushed and pushed until we successfully got our … stale cookies.

Reconvening in the warmth of a deserted building, we persisted, half munching on the horror that were those cookies.

By midnight, we barely even had five grafs written on the Google Doc.

By 2 a.m., we were getting somewhere! … Just not the end.

By 6 a.m, we were exhausted and still not done writing the article. We would have to stop. I groggily made my way back to my dorm, while my co-writer somehow made it back to his house.

We would end up meeting at noon later on that day. There, we persisted. The article was not completed until much past the 6:30 p.m. due date crammed in our Advisor's office discussing the best way to phrase our Editor-in-Chief’s portion of the article.

But finally, we finished.

Eating our celebratory dinner, while a fellow staffer told us about some old video game he used to play, I received multiple missed calls and texts from Gatepost staff and our Advisor. Returning to the office, I learned I had been promoted to Interim Asst. News Editor and I would be voted on in two weeks - it was only the third issue of the year.

Despite our struggle, confusion, cold, hunger, and fatigue, I was able to see the results of all my hard work. I was not only promoted, but had published my very first front-page article.

(Left) Myself and Evan Lee dressed up as Evan for Gatepost Halloween October 24, 2019.

Though we were in over our heads, we made it below the fold.

Throughout it all, I learned so much about how to write a proper news article. Though it wasn’t the most conventional way to learn, I did and I would eventually go on to become a News Editor and on to where I am now - an Associate Editor.

It was a shaky start, and a crazy week. But that’s what it was, only the start, and I would go on to learn so much more about the world of journalism and gain so many more valuable experiences.

Not to mention, the great friendship that blossomed from it with my co-writer, Evan Lee - my first blog subscriber.