Our time with Mr. Tsai

About a week ago our newswriting team had our very first guest speaker, Mr. Michael Tsai, come in and share his passion for journalism with us. Not only did he talk about his job, but reassured the many of us who still have no clue about what we want to do after high school. In high school, Mr. Tsai was a very shy but a, “horrible student” here at Kalani, to the point where he questioned his ability to graduate. After barely graduating, he wanted to take some time off, but got shut down by his mother, who “forcibly” enrolled him into Kapiolani Community College. Along the way, he found out what he wanted to do with his life, going into journalism. His first real job was at the Hawaii Herald  where he would physically cut and paste articles. He eventually ended up at the Honolulu Star Advertiser, where he claims to, “have a very average career”, which included riding his motorcycle across the country, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and meeting various celebrities such as three presidents, the emperor of Japan, Justin Timberlake, and much more. Currently working as a columnist and a news writer, he has his own column called, “Incidental Lives”. In his column, he writes about total strangers he “incidentally” encounters on the streets, to show that everyone is interesting and has a story to tell. I’d give you some examples, but you should check out his column for yourself. Our class really enjoyed and appreciated Mr. Tsai’s visit, leaving us inspired to write better with our new journalist notepads, in hopes to be as good as he one day. Thank you Mr. Tsai for teaching us that Journalism is much more than just writing.