MY LIFE AS ART

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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Friday, January 6, 2017
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TODAY is my 48th birthday, and I feel so brand new. I like the idea that I am nearing 50 with so much grace and beauty. I also feel that I’m still in top form as a writer, filmmaker, poet and author. So it gives me much pleasure to reflect on my growth as a writer.

Last Wednesday, I wrote about the decisive adolescent moments that hinted on my destiny as a writer. I wrote about my English teacher, Ms. Delicana, who recommended me to the school paper adviser, Mr. Taneña, who took me to journalism conferences.

Along with the senior writers and editors of The Pioneer, I attended the three-day campus journalism workshop in Iloilo City. It was attended by 174 high school students from all over the Western Visayas region, broken down as follows: Aklan, XX; Antique, XX; Capiz, XX, Guimaras, XX, Negros Occidental, XX; and Iloilo, XX. I can’t remember the actual numbers now (thus the XX), but I perfectly remember the 174 total, and that particular sentence construction, because I bested 173 others to win the Most Outstanding News Writer award; and the lecturer, Mr. Rey Parreño, during the awards ceremony, singled out that particular sentence as the most telling indication of a winner.

Because how many ways can you really write a news article about the conduct of the workshop? Mr. Parreño was pretty impressed by my use of the phrase “broken down as follows,” but he said what really set my piece apart from the others was my use of the statistics. Apparently, I was the only one who reported the numbers because I was the only one who asked, privately.

And why shouldn’t I? My first big lesson in campus journalism: A news writer should always look for facts. S/he should always try to answer the What, Who, Where, When, Why, How, How much, and How many.

I also took home the Outstanding Feature Writer award. I wrote something about the scenic spots in my hometown, and the award-winning piece was consequently published in our school paper, The Pioneer. The lecturer and judge was Ms. Mafelou Leagogo. (I think she went on to become Mrs. Agriam.) I’m not very sure about the spelling of her name, and if I don’t remember her that well, it’s because she only awarded me “Outstanding” instead of “Most Outstanding.”

The Pioneer staff took home the Most Outstanding Editorial Cartooning award; and one of our senior editors won Most Promising Editorial Writer (Filipino Division).

On my sophomore year of high school, Mr. Taneña personally insisted that I take the qualifying exams for the school publication. He gave me the position of News Editor, and trained me for competitions. I won at the Regional Secondary Schools Press Conference held in Bacolod, and was among the top 10 to represent Western Visayas at the National Secondary Schools Press Conference in Batangas.

Mr. Taneña left for greener pastures when I started my third year high school, but my position in The Pioneer was pretty much assured. In fact, between a “veteran” award-winning staff writer/news editor (me!), and the new school paper adviser, Ms. Meriam Sonza, I win.

I don’t really remember if I threatened to quit if they didn’t give me the position of editor-in-chief, which was, of course, traditionally given to seniors, but I did end up being the Editor-in-Chief of The Pioneer during my third year in high school. So yeah, I hold the record as the first two-year editor-in-chief of my high school paper.

In college, at the Pagbutlak publication of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, I was also supposed to be a two-term editor-in-chief since I was also named Editor-in-Chief on my third year of B.S. Biology; but on my senior year, I won the elections for the Chairmanship of the Student Council, again making history by becoming the first Biology major to win the position traditionally held by Political Science students.

Was I really hell-bent on making a name for myself as a writer even as a teenager? Hell, yeah! I knew I was exceptionally amazing with words, and I wanted to make the best of it. I read a lot when I was growing up. No, nothing literary; but I swear to Peter, Paul, and Mary, I knew pretty well our 22-volume set of The Book of Knowledge.

Sure, there where bits of poetry and stories there, but I valued more the encyclopedic information on, say the planets, or photovoltaic energy, or sharks and dinosaurs. I was a nerd that way, and I am confidently smart.

On Monday, I’ll tell you more about my relationships in high school; and whether or not I lost my virginity at 14. Ha! (To be continued)/PN
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