When I first joined the Daily Trojan as a staff writer for the opinion section, I was filled with self-doubt. To find my bearings, I gravitated toward what felt the most organic to myself and my college experience at the time by writing about the lack of LGBTQIA+ community and inclusivity at USC. My first article, once posted on our Instagram account, garnered far more attention than I expected and incurred countless angry commentators. 

Looking back almost two years later as an editor and slightly more seasoned writer, I know I would probably shred the article apart if it came past my editing desk today. Besides a few horrifically lengthy paragraphs, the call to action provided no specific demand of either students or the University:

“As young queer adults who have made it thus far, we can, and should, always demand more … Until true institutional academic support and useful physical space are dedicated to us, and until we as students collectively know to demand it, LGBTQIA+ students will always struggle to have a presence in this campus community.”

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Although I stand by these statements today, I concede I offered little detail or plan of action. When writers submit drafts with similar weaknesses today, I challenge them less on their writing prowess and more on this critical step of forming a valuable argument: thinking strategically about how to make change actually happen. 

I can vouch for the rigor of this process. Like any other journalist, an opinion writer must consider and acknowledge as many perspectives as possible. Their articles are sourced to hell and back with both qualitative and quantitative evidence, and hardly a day goes by now when an opinion article doesn’t incorporate interviews — a crucial area of growth we focused on the most this semester.

I believe that people’s voices matter — otherwise I wouldn’t have taken on this job — but the harsh truth is that most opinions are not worth publishing. Often, opinions written by college students with even the best command of the English language are limited in originality and relevance, usually stemming from a lack of life experience.

While there was nothing technically wrong with my first article, I can only critique its call to action today because I have two additional years of experience trying, and watching others try, to make change here at USC and elsewhere. There has been no shortage of failures. 

In my final year as an undergrad, I’m pushing myself to make a difference in my world outside of journalism. Like so many of the students who have come through the Daily Trojan, I am passionate about social justice and will spend my life working toward it, but I recognize my own “call to action” must extend beyond writing, editing and promoting discourse: It’s one thing to speak about what matters, and it is another to do something about it. 

I continue learning to balance my idealism with pragmatism and discipline.

No matter how much I may critique my past writing, I know my first article was effective because the very fact that I wrote about being queer at USC was enough to generate a reaction. Four semesters of Daily Trojan brainrot later, I’ve learned how to continue channeling my identity and experiences while arguing with a far more critical lens.

As I take my next steps, I am experiencing a sense of hesitancy that reminds me of my initial self-doubt at the Daily Trojan. I’ve grown comfortable in the newsroom, but outside of it, I fear once again that I am not sufficiently knowledgeable, organized, creative or whichever qualities an effective changemaker must possess.

I probably am not. But those qualities are skills — not identities — and I remain confident that I will grow into them because I know who I am and the world I want to create.

That kind of personal insight can only be won through dedicated self-discovery. When I first came to USC, I refused to join extracurriculars for a semester. I focused on creating a close community of people among whom I could learn what it meant to me to be queer and Asian, whether they shared those identities or not. I tested different forms of friendship, intimacy and heartbreak for the first time. I experimented with my major and minor and found peace in valuing learning over grades. 

My former opinion editor, Kate McQuarrie, wrote last semester, “Every single one of us faces different circumstances, hardships, influences and life paths, and those inform every belief we hold and decision we make … which backgrounds and voices we choose to include in a story and our choice of language or quotes all depend on the journalist.”

So, to my fellow and future writers and editors, place your courage in who you are. The rest will follow. Spend more time living life outside the newsroom than writing about it, and your journalism will benefit tenfold. Your writing is only as deep as the life you lead.

“Editors’ Epilogue” is a rotating column featuring a different Daily Trojan editor in each installment writing about their personal experiences. Antonio Wu is a senior majoring in public policy as well as pursuing a progressive master’s degree in public administration and is an opinion editor at the Daily Trojan.