But who is he really?
He is a person who perseveres and he shows his determination through his attitude in his work.
I got to know him by chance. He "caught" my post on the wall of a facebook page. He wanted to find out the story behind my post. He sent me a message on facebook. I did not bother to answer as there were many other people who also wanted to find out the story behind my post. But Ethan never gave up, he emailed me. He was determined to find out. In the end, I decided only to tell the story to Ethan, whom I have chosen to meet. I was impressed by what he wrote in his email, "I am also in Toronto. I can UNDERSTAND how it feels to...."
He is persistent in his own subtle ways, which does not offend.
He is only 22 and he has experiences that many of us can only dream of. Ethan had written several real-life stories and these stories were published in My Paper. He had the chance to work with many exceptional journalists and he had accumulated a wide range of writing experiences, from humor to sports, for charity organizations and of late, numerous high profile cases in Singapore.
However, it was not easy for him to get to the bottom of these stories. He went to two murder scenes, one, where a son killed the mother at Bukit Batok and the other at Bukit Merah, where a motorcycle salesman stabbed another http://www.asiaone.com/print/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120531-349477.html Despite the deaths that occurred at the scenes of the murder, he was stoic, as he looked at them as part of his duties on the job.
Not only is Ethan fearless, he is tireless. For the three months he worked for My Paper, he wrote close to sixty articles as he worked five days a week and did nearly an article a day.http://www.clippings.me/users/ethan
Among the most extraordinary stories covered by him were the high profile "City Harvest - Kong Hee" http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120628-355832.html, "Ferrari driver - 8 fatalities" http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120515-345945.html and SCDF Chief, Peter Lim Sin Pang's scandal http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120607-350984.html
What I like about Ethan is that, despite having written so many articles for My Paper, he is totally unassuming. He considers his greatest achievement to be how some of his stories have brought about positive impact. Surprisingly, these are not the "glamorous" cases. Instead, it was the one he did on his last day with My Paper that brought him the most satisfaction.
This was what happened. He was chasing a story on two shopping malls with signs that said construction workers were not allowed to use the toilet. It was a story he felt strongly about as he had to spend several hours at one of the shopping malls interviewing workers and the building management, who was totally taken by surprise. It was the fact that the signs were removed as a result of his action that gave Ethan a sense of achievement.
If Ethan can survive 3 months travelling 6 countries on $1,000, how can accumulation of wealth be his goal in life? So when I asked him how he possibly travelled from Cambodia to Malaysia to Thailand to Vietnam to China to Taiwan on the meagre budget, he explained that he backpacked, travelled by buses, trains, boats from countries to countries, except for the last leg back home, he bought "the cheapest everything" and he was good at managing his money.
So, what are his favorites?
Firstly, his favorite author is the late Trevanian, the pen name of American author, Dr Rodney William Whitaker (12 June 1931-14 Dec 2005).http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/691.Trevanian
Naturally, his favourite quote comes from the works of the late Trevanian, which says, "Their dishonour is not mine." He had lived by this quote as he felt that just because one has met with betrayal, it does not mean that he must treat others the same way he has been treated. He likened it to no matter how bad a day he had, he should not let his feelings affect that of others.
When I asked him who he respects the most, it is Antonio Salas, a Spanish journalist who infiltrated the neo-nazi organizations and Islamic terrorists. Antonio, who placed his job before self, experienced constant danger to his life in carrying out his arduous task. Ethan believed that it was through much sacrifice of Antonio, that Antonio wrote several stories that were bigger than the journalist himself.
Ethan gave me a little insight into his childhood. Of course, he loves his university days, but he feels that his best years were in secondary school. I guess, like most boys, he played a lot. He went to reasonably good schools and was mostly good in his studies. Although he claimed that he must have given his teachers headaches and never studied very hard in school, he has always been told that he has a lot of potential, of course, a lot more than what his grades had reflected back then. He still keeps really close contact with his secondary school friends.
When asked who was his favorite teacher, Ethan said there are just too many to name. Education to him helps to formulate a person, if not for his teachers, whom he respects a lot, he would be a different person now. Right now, he is in Ryerson University, Toronto, second year, majoring in journalism. His professors are very respectable journalists themselves. They have never hesitated to help when he is in need and they are extremely down-to-earth about things and they even hang out at the pubs together after the semesters.
He is basically thankful for the educational paths he has taken, as he knows that every choice will spiral into a myriad of opportunities and journeys, which will translate into more choices and crossroads. Every decision that is made, be it right or wrong, good or bad, has led him to where he is right now and he is perfectly glad about his present station in life. He is in very good stead to work towards being a truly outstanding journalist in his generation.
When I asked about where he sees himself five years from now, he foresees himself having graduated from university and will be working in a respectable paper as a journalist, which is his dream and that which he is working towards.
With the ardour and the determination that Ethan has, I personally have no doubt that he will certainly fulfill what he has set out to do. What I will certainly be doing though is to anticipate the great story that Ethan will be writing next and when I read it, I know he has put it before himself.
P/S: If you would like to find out more or connect with Ethan, you may do so via the following:
- website:http://ethanlou.com/
- LinkedIn A/c:http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/ethan-lou/40/a73/905
- twitter: https://twitter.com/Ethan_Lou
- clippings:http://www.clippings.me/users/ethan
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