By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Yesterday
marked 18 months since I finished my journalism degree at the
University of Northampton. As I walked home on Friday from my 9-5 job in publishing, I started to think and reflect on how I have changed as an individual
and how things have progressed because of the Uni experience.
When I look
back at my three-year stint at University, it was a time where things changed
again in the world, especially in the field that I studied in. When I was a
fresher in 2009, one of the first lectures we had was about journalism law and
I always remember one of the senior lecturers saying to us; ‘No journalist has
ever been prosecuted for their work.’ That changed when the general public found out
what Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks had been doing at the News of the World. That doesn’t mean their six-year affair which was revealed at the
phone-hacking trial recently.
I had the
chance to go to University before I eventually did make the step to higher tier
education and that was in 2007. After a couple of visits to Universities a year
earlier, I made the decision that I wasn’t ready to go away and study further.
As an individual at the time, I didn’t feel like it was the right thing for my development and
needed to grow more as a person and to realise what I really wanted to do. I’ve
always believed that this was the right decision and a pivotal one at that.
Once I get
settled into a routine or into a position, I get into a decent comfort zone. My
lengthy stay in the former retail job I had at Clarks Shoes can vouch for this.
However, if I had gone to Uni earlier than I did, I don’t think I would have
lasted six weeks. Therefore, the two years I did at Milton Keynes College,
studying media production were both valuable and essential to my future. I
wasn’t there to socialise heavily and enjoy life outside of college, I was
there to study, work hard and get the results required for my future goals.
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| Northampton gave me plenty of memories over three years |
That
eventually took me onto the Northampton journey (Avenue Campus pictured) and it is an experience I will
never forget. The other day, I looked through some of the photos of the nights
out and even the projects I worked on during the three years. Recently, I wrote
a case study for the UoN alumni association so who knows – my words could be
appearing in the next prospectus for upcoming students! I remember the good
times but also the not so good times, when things didn’t go to plan or times
were the façade I used to show started to see signs of cracking under the
pressure. I nearly walked away once from it all halfway through second year and
had another big wobble at the start of third and final year. It is in these
periods where some self-assessment was required (nothing to do with tax forms
by the way!) Did I want my degree bad enough to survive the testing
challenges? As a harsh critic of my own abilities, the answers were to keep
going and see where everything ended. Sacrifices were made to get back on track
and I ended up with the rewards come graduation day itself.
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| I consider myself lucky to still be in touch with many of my course colleagues |
Luckily, I
have more or less stayed in touch with a huge proportion of the people (myself and three colleagues pictured) who were
on the same course as me. It might be distant and through services such as
Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and even the ‘old-fashioned’ text message but it is better
than losing complete contact – something that I have had to unexpectedly get
used to from unlikely sources in recent times. The hope is that in the coming months/years, a reunion could be organised in the future. As a course, we knew how to
work hard but also how to party at the same time. Now that I'm in a professional
environment, my partying days ended a long time ago…but a small part of me
would like to revisit this element just once more before the age catches up on
me!
After
graduation came the hardest challenge. It is almost a year now since an unpaid
internship ended as a paid contract was offered, agreed and then rejected in
harsh circumstances. The story behind all this will come out one day, perhaps
in a future post on this site, maybe in the inevitable autobiography in around
30 years’ time but the people who did use my services for no pay in the year as a
freelancer have been proven wrong. I now have a secure position until the start
of summer 2014, on a solid salary and a role that is both enjoyable but also
demanding at the same time. Even this week, I have had to take greater
responsibility in a couple of consuming projects in my job. I’m honest enough
to say it is demanding but keeping busy is important to my characteristics,
especially having had to go through a personal loss myself in the closing
stages of another landmark year (more reflection on in my yearly review in
December.)
I do believe
though that now, 18 months on from handing in that final project, the sad
farewell to colleagues and friends on the journalism degree I did, I can assess
where I really am with my background. I feel that I am a stronger person, a
better individual, a more confident human being and accept much easier now both
criticism and approach tasks with a lighter but focused attitude. All these
skills were developed through University. If I had never gone, who knows
whether I would have developed these personal abilities? While the Uni
chapter is now firmly in my past, the happy memories and even the tougher times
will stay with me for a lifetime.
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