By Bryan Laprise
Special to The Record
Hi! It’s me: Bryan! For the past two months, I’ve had the privilege to be part of the team at The Record. Over the past three years, I have developed a passion for journalism, having started back up a student newspaper at Alexander Galt, where I just graduated in June, and developing it through my second cycle of high school. While it was a challenge, I am glad that I took it on and am hopeful that it is something that will live on at Galt.
Two months ago, I opened my email inbox to see a message from Matthew McCully, the managing editor at The Record, who I had corresponded with for partnerships through the Piper Post. He informed me of a summer opening in the editorial team, invited me to apply, and within a week or so, I had gotten the job.
Over the past few weeks, I have had original articles and press release flips published in countless editions of the paper. I am honoured to have had the privilege to work with such an amazing team, sharing my love of writing with the community.
My favourite parts of the job were growing my knowledge on a plethora of topics and getting to talk to passionate individuals, experts in their respective fields. While getting to write on recent news, I also got to incorporate some of my interests into my writings, such as analyzing trends through the series we had created to that effect. From the Stanley Quencher to Crocs, passing through meal kits and subscription services, their popularity, history, environmental and cultural impacts were all delved into. I got to experience different aspects of society, by attending and reporting on town council meetings, festivals, events, and press conferences.
Some of my favourite experiences being a reporter included going to the Fête du Lac des Nations, researching the Moulton Hill Mine (which was also a painfully long process) and interviews with Bishop’s and Université de Sherbrooke professors, which had interesting things to say in their fields of study.
Since I was little, I’ve always written, in a variety of different forms. Working with the Piper Post, The Record’s youth edition, The Point, and the Townships Sun, articles became the default form. At Galt, I wrote in my spare time, aiming for anything between one to three articles per month. For the past two months, I was working on one to three articles per day, which was a major shift in productivity. That was one of the major challenges I faced. While it wasn’t the traditionally dubbed “writer’s block,” I often faced writing exhaustion, where the mass production of articles became mentally exhausting. Gradually developing strategies to surpass the feeling, it was still a constant struggle, but was worth the while nonetheless.
Another frustrating aspect of the job, experienced by all reporters, is the lack of cooperation among individuals and organizations regarding interviews or comments. Being unbiased comes with getting both sides of the story, which is very challenging to do when one of them doesn’t want to comment on an issue. It happened a few times that people didn’t respond to interview requests, or forgot about scheduled times altogether, which is too bad, because they lost out on an opportunity to share their story with Townshippers.
So… what’s next for me? I’ll be studying in the Arts, Literature and Communications program at Champlain Lennoxville, in the Creative Arts profile, which has a focus on film, music and writing. We’ll see where that leads me to next, but I intend to study teaching English at Bishop’s.
While the days of my name being featured daily in a fresh batch of pages are over, keep an eye out for occasional articles. In the end of what I consider to be the “acknowledgements” section to my time at The Record, I once again want to express my gratitude to everyone at the paper; Matthew, Bill, Sharon, Andrew, Janet, Laurie and Cedric for their support and welcoming me into their team this summer. It was an incredible experience to work for such a longstanding and community-important news outlet. So, thank you everyone—those at the office, the people that accepted interviews, and you, reading my words.
