At the beginning of my second year, I scurried into my very first Writer’s Meeting a few minutes late, a precursor for all my future Writers and Production Meetings. I was in desperate need of an older sibling figure at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) at this time. Despite having only started my sophomore year of college, I had already been thrusted into leadership roles in two of my other clubs, Running Club and Ultimate Frisbee Club.
While I was grateful for those positions, I couldn’t help but feel like my college experience was still missing someone who could show me the ropes. But lucky for me, I met my two big brothers that day. It started with a conversation about my Raiders playing the Lions on Monday Night Football that day. It ended with me signing my writer’s contract and picking up my first pitch.
To my former sports editors Hansel Chu and Kia Nooshi, thank you for providing the mentorship and guidance my 19-year-old self needed. Writing for your sports section gave me something to look forward to each week and helped me grow as a human being.
Once Hansel and Kia graduated, I took over the sports section as Sports Editor alongside my main man Terry Nguyen. Despite the excitement I felt about being the Sports Editor, I carried the pressure of needing to live up to my own expectations, but also the pressure of stepping into and filling the shoes of my former mentors.
I struggled. During the fall quarter of that year, my sports section hid in the shadows of the other sections which were being led by older and more experienced editors. As each week passed with us struggling to find writers and write quality articles, the doubt of not being able to be like the big brothers I had aspired to started to creep in.
Fortunately, with the help of Terry and my amazing sports team, we made an incredible second half comeback. We introduced several columns like Highlander in the Arena to beef up our section and let it shine with the rest of the sections in each weekly issue. To my staff writers Sofia Majeed, Kishneet Kaur and Elena Versage, thank you for not only supplying my section with amazing articles every week, but also for also showing everyone that the sports section isn’t just for the boys.
I stepped into the role of Managing Editor my fourth year with a sense of uncertainty. After specializing in sports journalism for two years, I didn’t know if I could lead not just all of the editorial, but also all the other amazing sections of The Highlander. While the Slack messages did catch up to me, I couldn’t be more proud of Volume 74 and this year’s senior staff. Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without our Editor-in-Chief Mata Elangovan. Thank you for always believing in me and seeing things in me that I didn’t see in myself.
Through The Highlander, I was able to meet Marco Fabián and make amazing friends like Alondra Ordaz and Xochitl Gutierrez. To all the amazing people I’ve been blessed to work with at The Highlander over the past three years, I hope I could have been the big brother to you that I had been looking for during my very first Writer’s Meeting.
