My biggest regret to date is not studying for my potential career right after high school graduation. Granted I did study for a couple of different possible careers, but at the end of it all, I found my passion with writing in a journalistic style. My name is Jaime Aparicio and I’m 31 years old studying to be a journalist amongst many students who are a good several years younger than I am. Though this may seem a bit daunting at times, I do not let this taint my thinking process when writing material for the Rio Hondo school newspaper.

Taking it a bit back to when I began my first years in college, I graduated high school in 2004 and the imagination I had back then caused me to want to pursue a career as an animator. I was talented in somewhat duplicating a drawing onto paper from an existing drawing, but I could not for the life of me draw freehand and decided to try and be a marine biologist. The biology aspect of my studies only lasted for a few years before I took a regrettable break for several years. Seven years to be exact, and it was all to work for retail that brought not only a management position but also a great deal of frustration.

After realizing that I needed to desperately leave my employer at the time and go back to college, I made the wise decision to pursue a career in journalism. Coming back to college at the age of 26, I found myself not only surrounded by mostly younger students but had the mentality of someone who has worked for a long time. The reason for my slow return to school was due to myself wanting to earn money instead of expanding my education and putting it to good use for a more successful future. The job I had in the retail business before Rio Hondo was not one that was difficult to obtain. No offense to those who have made a living out of their position in that type of workplace, but even a few employees from that same employer gave me the advice of moving on to better things in life while I was still youthful. And wisely enough, I heeded their advice.

With being in classrooms that are occupied by younger students, I sometimes find myself questioning their mindset and type of language that is used, which I think is understandable because of the age difference. The relevance of the pop culture that I grew up with may seep into today’s culture in general, but for the most part, does not  have the same impact. But even though I tend to be the oldest, or one of the oldest students in my classes, I still find myself having interesting conversations based off of pop culture that give me an idea of what material to talk about when writing or talking about in the field of journalism.