Aainaism

I woke up at around 6:15 AM, cursing school and got ready to go. My A period class begins at 7:07 AM and fortunately I reached class at time at 7:05. The bell hadn’t rung yet. Thank god!

I met my friends, said, “hi” “how was your vacation?” “What did you do?” blah blah and more blah. We chatted for a while because there’s not much to do in my AP Government class. The teacher just told us that we have a test on wednesday and his job was done as he doesn’t lecture and expects us to read the chapters and understand them on our own. But that’s beyond the point.

The rest of the day was going fine, just like it always does. I was planning my week based on what I need to do and what I don’t need to do. Everything was fine until sixth period!

I went to my sixth period class, which is Journalism, the last class of the day. I sat down on my seat and was reading a book when the editor-in-chief came up to me and said, “The leadership class teacher, Ms. Dibble, is very angry at the Journalism class, at us, because of your article because the facts are wrong and your sources haven’t been double checked. Your article was published on the front page and you are responsible for double checking your resources. Now Ms. Dibble wants a retraction of the article on the front page.”

I just sat on my seat, staring it her, shaking my head. She continued, “I remember telling you to change the facts of your article because they weren’t correct.” And I suddenly blurted out that she had never done that, which was the truth. She had never sat down with me and told me that my facts were incorrect. She also claimed that she had written all over my draft paper correcting the mistakes that I had done and had told me to fix those mistakes. Believe me, she had never done anything of that sort.

When I kept telling her that she hadn’t even edited my paper, she cut me off and started talking, “What you need to do is go talk to Ms. Dibble and make sure that this never happens again because if it does, your articles are never going on the front page!” After saying that, she just walked off without even giving me a chance to speak.

I was stunned. I got up and grabbed the latest edition of the school newspaper and read my article. I still couldn’t understand what facts she was talking about. It all seemed right to me.

I went to talk to Ms. Dibble after school was out. As I entered, she said, “Are you the one I am so mad at?” I said, “I think so.”

She showed me my article and told me what was wrong with the facts that I had stated in the newspaper and she also told me how they were wrong. She said that she was angry at me for writing this but it was also a fault of the editor and the teacher, who should’ve changed the facts if they were wrong and checked them.

I just nodded as I was not in a position to speak. I realized that I had stated incorrect facts in the newspaper. I asked her what I needed to do. She said that I need to write a retraction in the next edition of the newspaper, saying that I apologize for my mistake and also print the right facts on the front page. I told her that I would do it, said, “I’m sorry” and left the place.

Yes, I had made a mistake. First of all, I used only one source for my information but should’ve used two and secondly, I didn’t double check my information. I was at fault.

But then, what are the editors and teacher there for? I write a lot of articles for the school newspaper and nothing of this sort has ever happened before because I am always careful. But just incase, this time I did mess up, it’s also the editor’s and the teacher’s responsibility to check the articles to make sure they are correctly written, especially source wise. If I am at fault, so are they!

I can either take this in a negative way (which I did when I came out of Ms. Diblbe’s room) and say that due to this incident, it’s sure that I can absolutely not become a good Journalist as I have committed a horrible blunder and will never me able to recover from it. On the other hand, I can look at this incident from a positive point of view and learn something from it.

After a lot of thought, I chose the second option. Mistakes are a part of life, sometimes, they are inevitable. Yes, I did a mistake, but now I know, never to depend on just one source. Next time, I will double check all my sources and make sure that everything is correct before the article is published.

I believe in what Charles Blasier said, “The obstacles you face are… mental barriers which can be broken by adopting a more positive approach.” And that’s exactly what I am going to do.

*Phew* No worries, everything will be fine when I go back to school tomorrow… well, at least I hope so!

Au revoir…
~Aaina.