By Max Kyburz
I guess I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was in eighth grade.
I was never the best reader of books, but I always loved magazines. Back then, I skateboarded, so I always was eager for the newest issues of Thrasher and Slap. When those weren’t handy, I would leaf through my brother’s old issues of Rolling Stone. Needless to say, my reading habits were suitable for my short attention span. That all changed when my mom’s friend gave me a book as a present. It was called The Answer is Never by Jocko Weyland, a longtime zinester and world traveling punk rocker. In the world of skateboarding, he’s a small name, but knowing nothing about him didn’t matter in the least. I loved his attention to detail, his extensive knowledge of skateboarding and music history and his unending treasury of stories. By the time I finished the book, skateboarding became an after thought. Writing was for me.
Regrettably, it never became an active pursuit until sometime afterward. My high school had its own student newspaper, but I couldn’t have cared less about it. Weyland’s book inspired me to craft my own handmade zine, which I called Serenity Now!, but that sank into development hell. In my senior year of high school, I took a poetry class, which required me to get my creative juices flowing. Poetry’s never been my bag, but I didn’t care. I felt power when I wrote it. It didn’t have to be any good, just the act of being creative was enough for me. Since blogging wasn’t the big kahuna it is now, I would write reviews and personal anecdotes on Myspace and LiveJournal. It was an unrealized passion, something to do to pass the time. My eighth grade ambitions got lost in the shuffle and I didn’t know jack about what I really wanted to do.
Like all high schools do when they pretend to care about your career path, mine administered a personality and interest survey to students in order to see where we wanted to go to college and why. Just as I am now, I was fascinated with the media, so I figured why not go into communication and broadcasting? I wanted to go to a New York school, but it just wasn’t in the cards. I checked out only three state schools – Eastern, Southern and Central. Their communication departments seemed about the same and I felt underwhelmed. I applied to the latter two, got into both, but I chose Central since I knew people there. Somehow I wound up enrolled as an English major, and it took me a while to figure out why.
My first couple years of college were fruitless as far as my writing went. Frankly, it took me a couple years to realize my potential. I figured my English degree would go towards me becoming a teacher, and not much else. Being a writer barely crossed my mind. It was just a way to kill time. I never ventured much into fiction, just think pieces and little film reviews. Strangely enough, I can credit Facebook with pushing me in the right direction; the Flixster application allowed users to rate and review films and I took advantage of the opportunity. Again, it was just to kill time (and maybe even allow myself to be a bit of a pretentious snob). Having studied Roger Ebert’s movie reviews for years, I wanted to produce mini critiques in the same style. I liked it, and my friends seemed to as well. People were agreeing and disagreeing left and right, and a few suggested I look into it as a career path. Being the stupid putz I can be from time to time, I brushed it off with an “Eh, maybe.”
Fall 2009 was the semester it all began to fall into place. I found solace in my film studies courses which basically allowed me to be as much as a nerd as I wanted, and my writing portfolio grew. Eventually I found myself at the Blue and White Room, where the Recorder meetings take place. I didn’t know what I’d write, I just knew I wanted to write movie and album reviews. I was given my first assignment – a review of Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I got to see for free. Not much money in journalism, but it’s got its perks. It felt good seeing my name in print. It was an accomplishment. I knew I wanted more. I wrote a couple more reviews for the ‘Netflix It’ column and then I went away for a semester abroad. During that time I knew I needed to follow my dreams before settling into teaching, which just isn’t my passion. I began to write more, which I found as my real source of inner peace. When I got back, I got in touch with Recorder editor Michael Walsh, who asked me to be Entertainment editor. I said, why the hell not? It’d keep me sane, and it’d look good on my resume.
Being an Entertainment editor isn’t the toughest role to fill, but it’s always a bit of a challenge. Every week I have to track down the upcoming movie, album and video game releases, as well as find out what events are occurring. Then I have to narrow it down to make sure its just enough to fit our slim margins. The tough part is keeping a balanced mix of stuff readers know and things they may not know. It’s almost as difficult when pitching ideas to writers; it’s not easy getting somebody to write about something they are unfamiliar with or just plain hate. I do my best each week to keep writers and readers up to date with current entertainment, as well as present The Recorder as possessing well-rounded, unpretentious taste.
I am now on my second semester as Entertainment editor and I wish I walked into the Recorder offices even earlier. I’ve been blessed with all the good-natured, creative, devoted people I’ve met and worked with these past several months. This is my last semester at Central and I look to the future with high hopes. I don’t know exactly where my writing will take me, or whether I’ll make a dime off of it, but if I was worried about finances I would’ve been a business or computer science major. I’m already up to my neck in debt, but thankfully writing and being creative doesn’t cost a dime.
