Hip to be square

The value of reading has been inculcated in me at an early age. Both of my parents like to read; my mother liked books while my father was more of a newspaper and magazine guy. Since learning to do it (at age 4) I’ve always been a voracious reader. I like reading books and magazines equally. Both give me pleasure; books stir my imagination while magazines please my eyes. Unlike my taste in books (which is somewhat confined to certain genres & authors), I like all sorts of magazines.

In the past, Filipino magazines were either showbiz-oriented (Kislap and Orig), journalistic (Free Press and Philippine Graphic), or a combination of these two (Liwayway). Then there were the “women’s magazines” like Mod and the Sunday supplements of newspapers (Panorama). I read them all with equal fervor. I even liked leafing through issues of ‘The Watch Tower’, the publication of Jehova’s Witnesses because the illustrations are so exquisite! That was the only publication that showed Jesus Christ as a truly virile figure, unlike that renaissance-era depiction of Jesus with the lanky body and lazy eyes. But I digress. What I’m just trying to say is that I like reading magazines. I like the way that most of them contain a multitude of information while maintaining some sort of cohesiveness, a wholeness.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to work in a magazine, even when I was a boy. Now, before you start to draw parallels between me and Justin (pictured), that delightfully fey boy in Ugly Betty, let me end it now. I mean, if Justin met me when I was his age, he would’ve totally dismissed me as pedantic as the other boys in his neighborhood. I can only wish that I had his sophistication when I was a boy. That would’ve saved me a lot of grief (not to mention fashion faux pas galore). But no, the only reason why I wanted to work in a magazine was because all the places magazine seemed to have access to. Of course, this would change as the years went by, but that was my starting point.

The closest thing I came to working in a magazine was in 1997. A year before that, by some weird stroke of fate (I’m a registered nurse who’d been working for an NGO), I got a writing job for a popular news magazine show in the most popular (subject to debate by its rival) broadcasting company in the Philippines. Of course the show was basically fluff in the true sense of the word (though rating well, it never got any award during its airing period) but I had a hell of a good time there. The pleasure didn’t last, and I resigned the next year. A friend recommended me to an editor of a newspaper and not long after I was desk editor for the lifestyle section of said newspaper. The pay was good and the hours were excellent! To top it all, Manny Pichel, my boss, was the nicest boss one could possibly have. I looked forward to putting the Sunday edition of the section because it allowed me to flex not just my writing skills but my artistic muscles also. The Sunday edition was not a magazine but it was 16 pages of pure design delight. But alas, like all good things, my employment there did not last. It was cut short by a workers’ strike.

After that I went back to the NGO sector. Over the years, friends who were working in magazines encouraged me to try it once again but I never did. Development work has claimed me entirely. Although my inclinations remain the same as my expertise is health communications. Now, 10 years later, I find myself facing a new opportunity to finally make (one of) my secret dreams a reality. A friend has approached me to be the editor-in-chief of a magazine that his company will publish in two months. Cleverly called SQUARE, this magazine targets young people in Cambodia, providing them with information that they want and need in a cool, fun way.

My friend’s company is a small, start-up company with high hopes and energy. The post is not as lucrative as my current line of work (it’s not even full-time as of now) but it is a welcome addition (and diversion) to my present work load. I immediately became interested from the moment he brought up the subject. I quickly imagined Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. Although, much as I liked her in that movie, in truth, Manny Pichel is more my template on how an editor should be. Today we had a brief meeting on what he expects from the magazine. Already we have many ideas on what to do in terms of content and design. He is currently setting up a space that would serve as the office and assembling the editorial team, and we hope to have our initial meeting by next week.

The title of this post is in honor of the magazine, but the title “I’m So Excited” would’ve been appropriate as well!