Sports Journalist’s diary: Struggles and Realizations

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

This is probably the first time I will be venting out towards this kind of topic.

But well, I needed this.

For the past months, my world as a sports journalist was incomplete. Incomplete in the sense that zero events were present since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out globally.

Personally, the nature of my profession is not only to write but also to hear, to see, to feel, and to get in touch with the atmosphere.

I am not the kind of journalist who’s a fan of second-hand information or even paraphrasing old articles to divert an angle and change it completely to whatever I want. I don’t want that stuff.

Since joining Daily Guardian and handling the sports section of the local daily, I have put my hard work and sheer determination to innovate content and to make sure that we put out the most relevant and the freshest sports news out there not only for the Ilonggos, but also to the rest of the country.

But since COVID came around, I was stuck.

I felt like I was inside a four-corner blank room, trying to find that something that can make my day exciting or try to seek that spark that can ignite my desire.

Flashback to 2019, when all was still well, I was the type of guy who would try to indulge myself in almost all sporting events in the city, study them, and try to interact with the people who can help me familiarize with the sport more.

Waking up everyday knowing I will have several games to watch, analyze, critic, and write about was more than joy. It was my routine. A proud routine of mine.

Despite long drives and long distance trips for sporting events, I never felt a single time where I said “kakapoy na, gusto ko na magpuli.”

No, it never crossed my mind. It was euphoria for me. It is what I wanted because I am committed to my work, which also turned out to be my passion since grade school.

But since March, I went back to square one. I have to deal with an everyday routine where I would wake up, can’t get out of the house for safety purposes and only monitor my laptop for a content to grow in my mind.

It was hard.

I adjusted slow, it took some time for me. It was a struggle. Struggle to revamp a system that used to be within me.

However, as time progressed, I also realized some things.

This pandemic actually taught me the value of patience and tested my loyalty to the profession if I am willing to adjust to changes that may not go in favor of me.

I also realized that no matter what happens and no matter the situation will be, the pen and the pad will forever be inked in my heart as a full-blooded journalist.

The love for sports that I had since being young still remains the same and has the same intensity with the desire I have to always make sure that my articles will hit differently compared to the other dailies.

Am I ambitious? I think yes. But people can’t be successful if they didn’t dream big. I don’t even know if you consider me as a top-tier writer but who cares. I am here to deliver what my heart wants.

As the days progressed and reports are already out that promising vaccines that can combat COVID-19 will be made available for the market soon, it won’t take too long for the sports world to get back to where it was.

I hope all of us would unite amid this pandemic and make everyone know that sports is still here within us. It never left us.

Sports just took a break. For something bigger, brighter, and better.

See you, 2021!