Remember the trips

Anyone who has chosen to dedicate their life to journalism understands that, in order to write well, one must first travel and experience things firsthand to gather material for drawing on the past.

Young reporters from Lam Dong Newspaper presented Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to children at Loc Chau Primary School (Bao Loc City).

In the early days of my career, every morning when I woke up, I always asked myself, "What will I do today?" And "travel" was how I found the answer. My first trip was "aimless." I followed paths ablaze with yellow flowers. Not being born or raised in this land, it was only after that first trip that I learned about and heard about the wild sunflower, a flower that silently gathers every dewdrop and ray of sunlight, waiting for the day it will bloom across the hillsides. And so, I, then 22 years old and still the same, long to "burn" with passion, especially with words, like the wild sunflower offering its golden hues to the world during its flowering seasons.

And my first trip that yielded a "product" was a trip to Da Tong commune, Dam Rong district, when the Editor-in-Chief assigned me to write about a young man from an ethnic minority group who had achieved many outstanding accomplishments and was being commended at that time. He gave me the task and told me: "Just take the bus and go. When you get there, write whatever you can, and if you can't, that's okay too. Just go and see." I confidently set off. Dam Rong was poor and remote, but at that time, everything about this place was new and strange to me. That's why I chose Dam Rong – the most remote and difficult district in Lam Dong province and one of the 62 poorest districts in the country at that time – to begin my journey of traveling and writing. For someone who had just started their career, with absolutely no experience or skills, the only way to hope to write something that would touch the reader's emotions was to go there, witness it firsthand, and be deeply moved. And so, time flew by, and for eight years I persistently made trips back and forth between Da Lat and Dam Rong. I made loyal friends in that challenging land, while the person who told me "just keep going" has also passed away to the vast mountains.

In those early years, I also traveled to Bao Loc, where Lam Dong Newspaper had a representative office, to join him on trips to the southern districts of Lam Dong. My colleague took me through these areas, explaining the names of places I heard for the first time. He explained why they are called Madaguoi, why they are called Da Huoai and Da Teh, and why there are communes like Quang Ngai and Quang Tri in the Central Highlands… He taught me: “Details, details, details… gather as many details as possible first, like how you pick up broken bricks to build a house, and then, after doing it many times, you will learn how to select the most valuable details.” Those meaningful trips in my early days were one of the important tools that gave me the confidence to create my own trips later on.

The newly merged Lam Dong province will be vast, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to explore every corner. But in present-day Lam Dong, I've visited every ward and commune, even the remote sub-districts deep within the protected forests inhabited by free migrants. And although not many trips, they have left unforgettable impressions, mostly arduous journeys through the forests, but I'm very proud of them. They are precious assets that I've acquired during my youth.

"Food and clothing are no joke for poets," Xuân Diệu once lamented. But it's not just poets; food and clothing are no joke for anyone, including journalists. That's why journalists sometimes jokingly refer to articles as "food and clothing" by their colleagues. But deep down, I'm sure that those who choose writing as a profession all want to "travel." And once they travel, the words they write are a "pouring of their hearts," a mobilization of their emotions into language to create a resounding emotional impact on the community.

Because of the word "travel," journalism is synonymous with hardship. For female journalists, it's even more difficult...

Although the years that have passed haven't been long, I understand and firmly believe one thing: the older generations, the younger ones, the generations of people working at Lam Dong Newspaper have overcome difficult times with a spirit of dedication and commitment to the profession they have chosen. And even if things change in the future, the passion for the profession will always burn brightly in the hearts of those who work there.

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/xa-hoi/202506/nho-nhung-chuyen-di-cfa2fdf/