Everyday marks a new chapter in history because each moment that passes by, a human is born, a war is fought, or a life is lost and to be a person honoured with capturing these moments as they happen, is who I strive to be each day.
Greetings, my name is Cyril Brabant, a 20-year-old post secondary student from Calgary.
With a tablespoon of luck, a dash of hard work and a ton of help, I can also say that I am a summer reporter for the Red Deer Express.
In all honesty, it’s a bit awkward to be talking about myself candidly so I’m just going to dive right in and give you the low-down on myself.
I’m not very good at talking about myself in length, so I’ll start off with a couple of fun-facts about myself.
I love spaghetti.
I’m good at holding the door open for the person behind me.
When I was younger, I was dead-set on becoming an American Idol winner, a marine biologist, or an astronaught-musician that played music for sick alien children (don’t get me wrong, if the opportunity arises for me to become any of the previously mentioned, I’m there in a heartbeat).
I dislike pretzels in trail-mix and I’m not very fond of geese (those birds are a menace during mating season).
Winter is my favourite season. Now, before you pull out the pitchforks and torches, winter is the best because of snowballs, Christmas, oversized sweaters, and, best of all, no-sweaty pits in your face whilst taking public transit. Need I say more?
Now enough about my likes or dislikes, let’s move onto my background in journalism.
At three years old I immigrated to Calgary from Cagayan De Oro, Philippines with my mother and reunited with my father.
When I was a child, I was as rambunctious as children are, but I loved singing. I particularly enjoyed the musical stylings of Whitney Houston, The Backstreet Boys, and the Pokémon themesong.
After high school, I struggled with figuring out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life so I took a gap-year to work, save, and figure it all out.
In 2015, I came to the conclusion that, because I love writing, talking to people, and writing about people I’ve talked to, journalism seemed like a no-brainer.
And so began my studies at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).
To my delight, the course also offered a photojournalism major. The courses at SAIT are specifically constructed to prepare the students with practical skills that are applicable to real-life scenarios in the workplace and as such, I got my first DSLR camera for the course and decided to work hard and claim one of the 16 seats available for the photojournalism major that SAIT offers. Though there was a high number of other applicants, all fierce competition, I managed to grab a seat for myself and I look forward to this upcoming semester.
Although, as I did more research on the course itself, I came to realize the importance of journalism and how much it affects the world.
My ultimate goal in life is to become a photojournalist. I’d like to travel the world and capture the world as it is during my time on planet earth.
I believe that being able to say ‘I was there’ during an event that changed the world or given the opportunity to present a moment in history to a world that was watching gives me a reason to become a better journalist and to hone my skills as a photographer.
As my ethics instructor, Walter Nagel, said during a lecture, “Journalists are the eyes and ears of the world.
“They are at the frontlines of history, capturing and documenting moments of paramount as they happen right before our eyes.”
student@reddeerexpress.com
