Back to the Future

Wow! A lot’s happened since I last posted!

First things first, I passed my driving test! This has been a personal goal of mine for a couple of years and after multiple attempts I think the driving examiner, who is notoriously strict, was as happy to see me pass as I was.

My job has finished, and I have a bit of money saved to enjoy spending in Montreal.

And, possibly the scariest thing of all- the exchange I’ve been planning for over a year is only a week away.

I am genuinely excited but a question from my dad panicked me a little last night. He asked ‘What are you going to do with your life darling?’ I got the feeling it was meant as a funny little thing to say to me while I was sitting on the sofa watching Emmerdale, but it got me thinking. What am I going to do with my life?

I know as far as worries go this is probably the most common one for people my age, and in terms of writing this topic has been done to death, but it is a serious question.

From the age of about 13 everyone asks you, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I never really had an answer. Maybe a vague idea of what I wanted to be- but any uncertainty I had was counteracted by my mum saying I had loads of time to decide. But now I’m 21, nearing the end of my degree, and if I decide not to do a postgrad I will aiming to be in full time employment in around a year.

I’m grown up now, I’m meant to kinda sorta maybe know what I want to do.

I kinda sorta maybe want to go into publishing, but for a big chunk of my adolescence I wanted to be a writer. And after going on a journalism course at 15/16 and some choice words from one teacher about my aspirations I kind of let it go, perhaps too easily. I think that perhaps publishing is something I settled on in a ‘those who can’t do, teach’ or a ‘those who can’t write publish’ kind of way. Which is unfair really because both publishing and teaching are respected professions and careers in their own right.

But now as I think more and more about my future, the more I come back to writing. Possibly for newspapers or magazines- Buzzfeed in particular sounds like an amazing place to work at.

But now with only one real bit of vague work experience in the area, and no idea how to approach writing with a mind to break into the profession I question if I have left it too late? And is it something I can really achieve?

I would really like to do something creative and varying that could eventually become well-paid and respected. I am worried that the professions I am looking at now will eventually come to frustrate and bore me, and I’m beginning to think that the only way to avoid being stuck in a rut, is to actually attempt to follow the dream I had at 15.

That’s all from me right now- if this bored you a bit, no worries- my next blog post will probably come from Canada!