By RUBY ASOY
The lessons she learned from the business are to be professional and to believe in your ability.
There’s a certain glow radiating in TV celebrity and GMA-7’s Unang Hirit host Lyn Ching-Pascual. The reasons are pretty obvious: Careerwise, she’s still enjoying a career-high. And on the personal side, she’s very much blissful and fulfilled as a wife and mom.
She admits, up to now, she’s still perfecting her hosting style. And interviewing people is a learning experience. “The outcome of every interview depends on my subject, how they react, and also with my prevailing mood,” she said during a past interview.
Lyn shares that it has always been her dream to become a newscaster. At the age of 21, she was already a newscaster for GMA-7. Her previous programs for the channel include GMA News Live, GMA Balita, a segment in Saksi, Etching: Entertainment Today with Lyn Ching, and S-Files, to mention some.
She says there’s a big difference between hosting a news program and an entertainment show. “In public affairs and news, you have to be serious about everything, you have to know the detail exactly as it is. In entertainment, it’s much easier because when you commit a mistake you can do a lot of adlibs. And the people you talk are more jolly.”
To keep herself updated with entertainment news, she checks the internet a lot (for the international news) and reads the gossip columns of tabloids and broadsheets for the local news. “When I read a newspaper, automatically I read the entertainment and lifestyle sections,” she says.
• Fondest childhood memories
Lyn is 12.5 percent Filipino. Her grandmother on her father’s side is half-Filipino. “I belong to a middle-class family,” Lyn relates. “We’re a typical Chinese family. My parents had to strive hard to get me to La Salle. I got in because I studied hard.”
She describes her childhood as not-so-very-happy because she was always criticized by her peers for her heavyweight. At the age of 10, she was 140 pounds (now she’s slimmer). “At that time, my skin was so sensitive and I got rashes all over my body,” she relates. “I ate everything, and I didn’t know which food I was allergic to. Thank God, I have outgrown it.”
When she was in first-year high school at Hope Christian School, she got slimmer and her confidence grew. “Then I became ma-chika and outgoing,” she says.
At 17, she tried modeling. “My brother (Engelbert) was the first person who supported me in my modeling stints. I went to an agency in Makati, not expecting anything in return. I requested if they could do a VTR of me. In short, I was taken in. My first product was Coke for an international release. Then I did cameo parts to various commercials.”
• “Working out is not a hobby but a lifestyle”
Lyn relates that she has been a health buff since her college days when she was a member of the Philippine Dragon Rowing team. She has tried boxing, kickboxing, karate, wrestling, grappling, and arnis. She says she gets a different kind of fulfillment from these sports.
“Physically, you get healthier, more alert, and more energy to do everything. I’ve always been active. But now, I’m more hyperactive than ever,” she relates. “Emotionally, you become more stable. Working out is not a hobby but a lifestyle.”
After more than two decades of working at GMA-7, Lyn remains passionate about her work. The lessons she learned from the business are to be professional and to believe in your ability.
Photos courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/lynchinggma7