Today I came to my mom. I was looking for something in the cupboard. There I came across an old accomplishment of mine. Looking at it, I thought it is the apt time to have it in the hand when there is a prompt by Hive Learner’s Community to write about a contest we participated in.
The story is 20 years old. It belongs to the time when I studied in school and was a student of class 8. During my whole academic life, this particular year keeps its own unique importance. I participated in all the opportunities at hand with passion and dedication and emerged as one of the most famous students of the school. Be it curriculum, speech, science or arts and creativity, I made a name for my self.
While taking part in many other activities I took part in newspaper-making competition organized by our English Teacher. She wanted us to write something about the school along with other articles.
Upon careful consideration of the subject, I decided to create a magazine with book-style format rather than a broadsheet newspaper with wide pages.
In the beginning I was of an idea that everything I would be writing in the magazine would be about the school. However, as I started working on it, more and more ideas came to me and I kept on adding them to my work.
It is important to mention here that at that time there was no internet facility available at my home or school. Everything I had to do was to be done with resources available off-line.
I carefully observed the few magazines available at my home and drove some ideas out of them like how should the opening and organization be, what sections should be added etc.
Something worth mentioning about this art piece (I consider it so 😄) is that all the 54 pages were handwritten. Headings, pictures, colours and other drawings were drawn by me. At some spots I cut the pictures from other newspapers and magazines and pasted them according to my need.
For instance, look at this picture of a house. I took several pictures of people from different pages of newspapers and pasted them together in this shape.
It was to demonstrate the staff of the school. The following pages contained interviews of some of the staff members.
Here is the editorial page of the magazine.
The title of the magazine (Reality), heart-bordered frame for editorial and the column for content were drawn, designed and written by my hands.
On each page I drew a border at all the corners and coloured it with a highlighter. On the top of the page, on every page, I wrote a saying/quotation. The saying wasn’t written randomly but a prudent effort was made to select the saying according to the subject matter on the given page. Besides, at the bottom of the page, I mentioned page number, the magazine’s name and the section’s name. All of these things are evident in the picture given below.
I coloured most of the pages either with pencil colours or highlighters.
On some of the pages, I designed them with a background image, no need to say “drawn by me".
I had also composed some poems and made them a part of the magazine. Here is how I presented them.
Something that put my principal in awe was the drawing of the school building. Though it was a drawing but not a photograph it looked pretty much similar to how the school building appeared.
For making it a part of magazine , I took the interview of my principal. It was an experience of its own kind.
The time when I prepared the magazine, my resources for content were quite limited as I have mentioned there was no internet facility. Furthermore, the scarcity of English-language content compounded the challenge. With primarily Urdu newspapers and magazines at my disposal, I opted to extract articles from them undertaking the arduous task of translating them into English. Though it was an exhaustive work, but it served as a valuable catalyst for enhancing my English writing skills.
As I held this old accomplishment in my hands, memories flooded back from a time two decades ago. What started as a plan to spotlight our school evolved into the meticulous crafting of a magazine. Notably, this creative journey unfolded without the convenience of the internet, relying solely on offline limited resources.
The process, involving 54 handwritten pages adorned with drawings, colors and carefully chosen quotations, was both laborious and gratifying. Beyond encapsulating the spirit of the school, this artistic endeavor became a personal odyssey, contributing significantly to the refinement of my English writing skills.
Holding this tangible relic today, it signifies not just a magazine but a cherished artifact marking a transformative phase in my life.
It brings me immense pride to share that this creation earned me the prestigious title of “BEST MODEL MAGAZINE,” a testament to the passion and dedication poured into its pages.
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This is my participation for Hive Learner’s featured contest prompt.
All the images belong to me. Photographed using my mobile