(Clearwisdom.net) In October 2007, I joined the Minghui reporter team. My first assignment was to interview 66 year old Ms. Qiu. Ms. Qiu grew up in a poor farmer's family in a remote village in south-central Taiwan. The village regards men as superior to women, and Ms. Qiu dropped out of school at an early age. She was illiterate and plagued by illnesses. Since she began practicing Dafa, she has benefited both physically and mentally. Relying on her own efforts, she is able to write letters and use the computer to do truth clarification work. My second and third reports were about the opening ceremony of the Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance International Art Exhibit at Taiwan's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Yungho City and a parade to promote the art exhibit. These were in October 2007. I was relieved to see my three articles published on the website quickly. I was so happy that I checked the articles word by word to see how they were modified, hoping to become more professional.
Walking my own path
Reports on Shen Yun performances are important. Shen Yun arrived in Tainan City, the first stop of its Taiwan tour, in late February 2008. During four shows in three days, five reporters from northern Taiwan went together to Tainan City. Four of them had had experience in reporting Shen Yun shows the previous year, while I was the new reporter.
Interviewing audience members, I was not intimidated but I was not calm enough. On a number of occasions, I did not think of taking a photo of the interviewee until I finished the interview. Thanks to the help of our photographers, no omissions occurred. The trial began when arranging documents. Four practitioner reporters each had their own way, but I was anxious while replaying the recording and taking down notes. I felt their method was time consuming, as I was still only half done. I thought another method was not complete and was afraid that it would lead to omissions. Seeing that the other four practitioners were calm and relaxed working on their reports, and I made less progress, I was even more at a loss. I regretted that I had made too many interviews, and blamed the coordinator for ignoring me, and treating me as a "mature" reporter. The more worried I was, the more I felt helpless. Towards the end I almost collapsed and I cried. With tears in my eyes, I composed the first report using the complicated method of transcribing the recording word for word. Practitioners who had finished their reports helped me arrange two more reports, and I handled the rest overnight. I gradually calmed down.
In the following five performances in Kaohsiung County, there were enough reporters there already, so I had time to look within. I understood that each of us has a different path to take, we have different habits and backgrounds, so it's hard for us to copy other practitioners' ways of doing things. I was actually afraid to endure hardships and eager for success, and wanted to find a short-cut, so I was taken advantage of. After getting agreement from another reporter, for the following four performances in Taichung City, we took subway to Taichung to conduct interviews, and took the last subway home the same night to Taipei to prepare our articles. I found the right direction and became more mature. There were more guests in the following performances in Taipei, but I was able to conduct more interviews and make more reports, I was no longer anxious and eager for success.
Awakened by the Fa principle "It's hard to endure, but you can endure it. It's hard to do, but you can do it." (The Ninth Talk, Zhuan Falun, Translation Version 2003)
Remembering names and faces, and lacking a sense of direction have been my weak points. These weak points made me suffer a great deal when I reported on Shen Yun, and led to inconvenience for the coordinator. When conducting interviews, I tried my best to bear in mind the interviewees' clothing, facial features and surrounding background, but looking at the photos laters, I was confused. I tried hard to recall and compare, but couldn't get it right. Thanks to the coordinator who is an expert in searching, comparing and collecting [photos], with her assistance, I was able to cope with various situations and produce good quality reports.
Once I interviewed an Army General. I thought two practitioners had helped take some photos of him, so I did not take a photo of him myself. When searching his photo online, I found at least two people who resembled him. After repeatedly checking face, smile, even the buttons and background, I selected [a photo] and submitted it [with my report]. Shortly after, the coordinator called me on the phone and told me that the photo was of someone else. Other practitioners noticed the error, and the coordinator immediately made an urgent correction. These back and forth movements caused inconvenience to numerous practitioners and wasted their time. I was full of regret. Plus I was frustrated of not being able to accurately recognize the interviewees, I wondered if I was qualified to be a reporter, and I considered quitting a number of times.
But before I quit, I studied the Ninth Talk of Zhuan Falun, and I read "It's hard to endure, but you can endure it. It's hard to do, but you can do it." I felt as if suddenly hit on my head and I awakened. The old forces arranged me to have such carelessness, and took it as an excuse to test me, why should I acknowledge it and be trapped in the struggle of should I or shouldn't I quit? How weak-willed and timid I was! Am I worthy of the title "Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciple?" So, I adjusted myself and changed my way of doing things. I realized that I must take photos of each interviewee myself and keep track of the photos and interviews so that I could accurately match faces to the right people in my articles. I was no longer rushing to the next interviewee, although sometimes I worried that some guests may pass by. Once such a thought came up, I immediately eliminated it with righteous thought. Usually, as soon as I turned back, I would see that the guest who I intended to interview was blocked by the crowd or was still seated and savoring the performances. I knew that was because of Master's compassionate attention and help.
I have a poor sense of direction and get lost easily, even with a map at hand. My work requires me to travel to different places. The challenge comes when reporting on cultivation stories, which require me to travel all over. Fortunately, some practitioners accept telephone interviews and send me photos. Some make appointments with me to meet in easy to find public practice sites to have their photos taken. Some agree to meet in places I already know how to find. At the beginning, I was a bit scared. I would make full preparation before setting off to conduct the interviews. I left home early, but later I found that I only took a detour a couple times. Most of the time, I was able to follow a precise and direct route. "Getting lost" has accompanied me since my childhood, but is now only a memory. Recalling the detour I took, it helped me to dig out my fear of going to strange places, and being unwilling to come into contact with strangers. I improved in my cultivation. Over the past years, I have traveled to different places with paper, pen and a camera. I'm no longer bothered by my sense of directions.
Conclusion
I have been a reporter for less then two years, looking back, at the beginning, my articles were full of marks of deliberate cut and polish, and traces of self-display could be seen everywhere, the results were self-defeating. I had many disagreements with the coordinator, and even defended myself by saying that articles since ancient times to present, have different styles, because readers like different things, so why should everything keep the same tone? As I looked within myself and constantly adjusted my xinxing, my approach changed. What moves readers are fellow practitioners' touching deeds, not my clever compilation of words.
Writing this experience sharing paper has been a process of checking myself. Many attachments that were not detected or did not want to face were dug out one after another, and eliminated while writing the article. Sometimes, my human side took the upper hand, and did not want to thoroughly dig out attachments. So I calmed down and looked within, and then returned to the computer, able to move forward again.
Fellow practitioners, please compassionately point out anything inappropriate.
Experience Sharing Conference on the 10th Anniversary of Minghui/Clearwisdom Website