ABOUT four pages of the day’s paper were scattered on her desk. At 9:15 p.m., her morning reading was not yet over. Quite odd to an average reader, but once she starts reading, it always means cover to cover, word by word. If you’re Cherry Ann Lim, you can’t seem to have enough information.
But 14 years of her life in journalism are surely enough to prove that it isn’t a wild goose chase out there. As Sun.Star Cebu turns 28 this month, her memories still serve her right – the pains, the joys, the cards that showed her the way, and how she stayed slender after all these years.
Before taking her current post as Soft Pages Managing Editor, she taught business courses at the University of San Carlos-Main. Well, to be very clear about it, she never wanted to become a journalist. Self-employment was the first plan after completing her degree in Business Management at the Ateneo de Manila.
Since she was already a contributing writer, she was already on top of the list when the editorial team was in search of a copy editor for Weekend (this very section that used to run on Sundays).
“Every time my article went out, I’d call Erma (Cuizon, the editor at that time) and tell her that I have found copy errors,” she laughed. “So when they were looking for a copy editor, she told me that I was fit for the job since I am good at nit-picking.”
For a year, she stayed in that position until the management commissioned her to edit the business page.
“She just laid all the business cards on the table,” Cherry recalls the time when the former editor of the business section turned over the job to her by giving her all the contact numbers of possible sources. “I really didn’t know what to do – nobody taught me how to write – but I just learned along the way. I didn’t even know what a lead was.”
Happily enough, she has survived the test of time. But there is one memory that lingers: her experience as a neophyte journalist in 1998, covering the former President Fidel Ramos’s visit to Balamban.
Patience has always been a virtue. It took her two hours to travel from the newsroom to the site where Ramos was supposed to conduct a press conference. Withstanding the heat of the sun, she waited for hours, but some cases just didn’t seem to come out as planned.
“I was disappointed. I was just walking side by side with him, but I was not allowed to speak to him. I threw a question, but the PSG (Presidential Security Group) barred me. So I was not able to write about it – imagine, after all the hours spent waiting for him,” she goes on.
But despite that experience, she moved on. Thus, she has already embraced every detail that comes along with journalism. “I would not be in this job if I didn’t love it,” she beams. “In my first year, I lost seven pounds – never gained them back.”