Yes, I am blogging and, therefore, contemplating my career over the Easter holidays. Turns out it’s been on my mind a fair bit recently, which some might take to be a good sign. I take it as a growing annoyance. But anyway, contemplating I am.
Having made a much needed visit to the Careers office a couple of weeks before the end of term, I have acknowledged something I’ve been trying to deny and ignore out of existence for a while now: I want to be a journalist. There we go, the truth is most certainly out, with the help of a kind careers advisor. I have been carrying this idea around with me since producing a supplement for my local paper when I was fifteen, but have been desperately resisting the desire to write for a living in favour of searching for something more “attainable and realistic”, for these main reasons:
1. I have been fazed by the level of competition in the industry.
2. I’ve been questioning my ability in the writing department following said competition.
3. For the reasons above, I hadn’t bothered trying to gather any valuable experience. (Ok, I’m not going to pin it down to all of the above, I’ve partly just been lapping up the uni experience a bit too much to get myself organised.) And,
4. I am a little bit silly.
But better late than never. And so here I am, trying to figure out the best way to start getting my foot in the door, or a big toe at least! The careers adviser has sent me a few useful links, and I’ve been reasearching how other people from Newcastle have made themselves into successful journalists, and trying to decide what type of journalism interests me most. After a year of empty promises to myself, claiming I would attend Courier meetings, I finally swallowed my apprehension and showed up, and have managed to churn out an article for them. Hopefully more to follow there!
Easter will be spent trying to come up with a corker of a dissertation topic (I’ve been told a couple of glasses of vino will help get the creative juices flowing!) and hounding some local newspapers for work experience over summer. If there’s one thing I’ve realised, it’s that the actual DOING instead of THINKING ABOUT DOING is much easier. Now I’m finally applying myself nothing is as daunting as it seemed.
Hope you’re all having productive (and stress free!) time off 🙂 J