I was a smart kid at Azle High School: Editor of the school paper, and winner of academic awards every year (English/English/English/History); then won statewide University Interscholastic League (UIL) awards, most importantly to me: Second in State for Editorial Writing.
Once I got to the University of Texas at Austin at age 18, I went in for an interview with a 20-something member of UT's "Daily Texan" newspaper staff. He asked me "what I read." At the time, I only read the daily Austin paper and the subscription to "Time" magazine that my mother had paid for (though I'd been reading "Time" for the past 10 years as a kid at home) and "Rolling Stone." When I mentioned "Time" magazine, the 20-something smirked and then brushed me off.
This smug kid, for whatever reason, let me know that I wasn't welcome. And I let this snarky 20-something keep me from being a part of the newspaper staff that I had previously thought I could be a part of (based on my previous qualifications and interests). What, though, could I have done differently? At age 18, reading the local paper and "Time" and "Rolling Stone" weren't good enough to indicate a skill set appropriate for the college paper?
That rejection did, indeed, change my life. And made me distrust the "gatekeepers." This one person didn't like me and so kept me from being a part of UT's "Daily Texan" staff, though I was smart and well-qualified.
I went on to hang out with poets, and to get an English degree. But I still miss the camaraderie and intensity of putting out a paper. And I will never forget this one creep mocking me for reading the out-of-fashion "Time" magazine and not being "cool" enough to work for UT's "Daily Texan."
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