First Steps, Final Moments: Two Journalists at DSPC
For one student journalist, DSPC is a first step; for another, it is a familiar competition she is learning to say goodbye to.
For the boy, this was his first Division Schools Press Conference.
He was new to the competition and still learning what came with being part of a group category. There were new instructions to understand, new teammates to work with, and a competition he had previously only heard about.
“First timer pala ako, so I’m still in the process of learning.”
— Grade 10 student journalist, Mini Presscon
There was excitement in being somewhere new, but there was also the uncertainty that comes with not knowing exactly what to expect.
For the girl he was competing alongside, the situation was different.
She had already spent years joining campus journalism competitions. She knew what it was like to prepare with a team, work under a deadline, and come back to school after a competition with either a result to celebrate or something to improve on.
This DSPC, however, carried something her previous ones did not.
“I’m honestly quite nervous, because this is my last DSPC since I’m graduating next year.”
— Grade 12 student journalist, Mini Presscon
Their answers reveal a small difference between two people standing in the same place.
One is thinking about the many things he still has to learn, while the other is beginning to think about what she will leave behind.
The boy said being a first-timer meant figuring things out as he went along—he was still learning how the competition worked and what was expected from him as part of a team.
The girl remembers being in that position herself.
“Han una, during my first DSPC around 2024, ginkakabahan talaga ak adto.”
— Grade 12 student journalist, Mini Presscon
But I already know how it goes, and I’m with my groupmates, so diri na as nerve-wracking as before.”
Years of competing did not make every competition easy but simply made the unfamiliar parts familiar.
She has already gone through the things the boy is only starting to experience—the trainings, the pressure, the teamwork, and the anticipation of results.
But experience has also given her something she did not have during her first DSPC: the awareness that these competitions eventually come to an end.
“I mean, you don’t really notice man talaga if it’s your last until you’re already there.”
— Grade 12 student journalist, Mini Presscon
For the boy, that ending is still far away.
His first DSPC is something to experience before it becomes something to remember. He still has time to become familiar with the competition and learn from the journalists who have been doing it longer than he has.
For the girl, the familiar is starting to feel different.
She is still a student journalist, still competing, and still learning. But with graduation approaching, she is also beginning to look at the things she has spent years doing and realize that she will soon have to leave some of them behind.
That is what makes their experiences different.
The first-timer is looking forward to the things he has yet to experience, while the graduating journalist is looking back at the things she has already experienced while still standing in the middle of one of them.
Neither position is better than the other, but they show two points in the same journey.
For the boy, this DSPC can become the first of many. For the girl, it can become one of the last.
And perhaps that is what makes the same press conference mean something different to everyone who enters it.
Some come in wondering what it will be like.
Others come in knowing exactly what it feels like—and realizing that they will not be here forever.
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