My First Published Work!

Pardon my absence, dear reader. I know it is most unbecoming, but some exciting developments have arisen in my life, as you might have guessed by the title of this post. Aside from seeing (and reviewing) Arlo Guthrie, I am now a Featured Writer at HonorSociety.org, a nation-wide support group for college students, and had my first piece published last week. It is a simple "About Me" that covers much of the same ground as my first blog post, but I would be more than honored if you were to take a look at it yourself. I will write three articles for them a month covering books, current events and education, so expect to see them posted on here. Don't fret though, I still plan on writing on here about stuff that falls out of the purvey of those topics, so this blog certainly won't be obsolete. The article can be accessed here, and it is reproduced in full below.

                                                                                                     A Little (Or Lot) About Me

Hello dear reader. I would assume by this point that you have seen the byline and thus my name, but just in case you haven’t, let me restate it. My name is Reginaldo Peralta, although I almost always go by Reggie. Feel free to call me that from here on out.

As you might have guessed, I am a college student, studying Radio and Television/Video Production at Fullerton College. However, Fullerton wasn’t my first college. Prior to this, I attended and graduated from UCLA as a Political Science major. The four years I spent there were formative for me, both academically and socially. I must admit that my first two years were very rough, filled as they were with growing pains both inside and outside the classroom. It was only in my junior and senior years that I came into my own.

It is no coincidence that during these two years, I joined and was involved with UCLARadio, the campus radio station, as a disc jockey. For just under two years, I played music, usually classic rock and novelty songs, and interviewed dozens of guests, including former Massachusetts governor and 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, The Doors drummer John Densmore, “The X-Files” co-star William B. Davis, Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri, and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. It was a significant achievement for me, particularly considering the fact that I had trouble interacting with others, let alone with an audience.

Indeed, it was my experience with UCLARadio that convinced me that what I wanted to do was work in broadcasting. Uneasy about entering graduate school, I resolved instead to look for programs that would prepare me for a career in radio. I checked the University of California, I checked the Cal State system, I even checked community colleges, but I couldn’t find anything remotely resembling the technical type of program I was looking for. It wasn’t until, on a whim, I looked at the offerings of Fullerton College when, at last, I found such a program.

During this time, I also became seriously interested in writing. I had written material here and there before, but never on a consistent basis. Yet over the course of my time at UCLARadio, I exposed myself to dozens of books in order to prepare myself for interviews with guests. Having been exposed to said material, I suddenly found myself not only interested in what others had to say, but also what I had to say. At moments, I even find myself wishing that I had double majored in English, in the hope that it would refined my writing ability.

The time for regrets is past though, and the best course of action (at least from my perspective) is to keep moving forward. To that end, I make it a point to read at least 50 pages a day, so as to keep my mind active and expand my horizons. Although I will read pretty much anything, historical and political non-fiction are especially interesting subjects to me. Expect much of my writing to take the form of book reviews and analyses of current political events, usually ones dealing with foreign policy (my major had a concentration in International Relations after all) and civil liberties. I will also cover education, whether that means advice pieces that draw from my own experiences and reflections or discussions of contemporary developments that affect college students. Ultimately though, regardless of what I address, I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.