A Dashboard Moment

This month marks my one year with The Brunei Times, and even today I still can't believe it has really been that long. It was only 12 months ago that I started my career as a probie reporter without any knowledge or experience in journalism. I still remember how it was like, all the struggle in learning the ropes of being a roving reporter and photojournalist. It took a lot of time and patience (and several nightmares), but it went pretty well after a few months.

Nevertheless, I'm still a learner today. In fact, I'm still brushing on my writing, communication and photography skills, acquiring new tips and tricks as I go through the days. There's so much more to experience and discover in this line of work. But indeed, it has been a pleasure working with the company, albeit only a five year old establishment, I see a potentially bright future of our publication. We reporters just need to work extra hard.

It's an exhausting job, getting dead ends meet every single day, chasing after stories before the sun sets, all the commuting, and so on. But I kinda got the hang of it, and the knowledge and experiences have been pretty worthwhile. So much so that it has taught me a great deal on life and how crazy the world can be out there.

It's a shame that sacrifices had to be made in order for me to fully adapt to this new life. I no longer had the luxury of joining the outings with the Brunei Forever photogs, weekends are considered working days for the media people, and I had to quit from the wedding photography business. Heck, there have been times when I just got too busy I neglected my blog for far too long. Yet I enjoyed this job, and I made my own outings every single day through my assignments. That has been my training ground over the months. And the people I meet everyday, young and old, they're like family to me now. There's always the thrill and excitement going down to events to make coverages shoulder to shoulder with rest of the journalists.

I believe this is only the beginning. New challenges are definitely ahead, yet the past will always be taken as lessons for the future. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying this dashboard moment as I make my way back to my workplace after a long day at one of my assignments. This is journalism.

My name is Al-Haadi Abu Bakar, and I am not a terrorist.


My humble throne