Tatterdemalion means ragged person.

I thought I knew how to write. I thought I knew my grammar. I thought my considerable knowledge on hi-falutin words is enough to get me through in this life. Well, I was wrong. It took one editing exam to make me realize that my prodding interest in knowing "nosebleed" words is just an inkstain in a bare sheet of pad that needs more filling. Tatterdemalion? Prescient? Arriviste? I couldn't detect an instance in my life where I came about those words. Unfortunately for me, the editing exam was for the Ateneo Law Journal and I wanted to get in.

When I applied and got accepted for the Varsitarian on my fourth year in college, I thought that was some sort of proof (if not conclusive proof) that I could write. And in that full year that I was in the publication, I learned many things about writing and expanded my vocabulary. But how come when I looked at the exam sheets I felt like I knew nothing at all? It might be erroneous to compare the Varsitarian with the Journal because the writing style is definitely different from each other such that the former caters to, well, the general masses so to speak, while the latter caters to the more professional group. Nevertheless, a publication is a publication and I might have had a little bit of edge because of that right? Wrong.

Don't get me wrong. I admire the Varsitarian and the way it has honed me in my writing skills. But the writing skills I formed there are for newspaper and magazine type of works, a farcry from what's needed in the Journal. Maybe there's still an inkling of hope that I may pass but I'm not banking too much on that.

Sigh...