By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Tomorrow
marks the start of my ninth week in my newish role as a picture researcher for
a leading company in stickers and trading cards. While I can’t
go into much detail, it has been a good and worthy experience. I have settled into a routine, get on well
with the whole team, contribute to all projects that we have undertaken as a
team so far and if I’ve made any mistakes, I’ve always learnt from the slight
errors.
I am now
halfway through the contract given to me when I accepted the role, and it means
I need to start thinking about my short-term plans yet again. Plan A is most definitely to stay where I am
at the moment. When I did my journalism
degree between 2009 and 2012, I didn’t imagine ending up being a picture
researcher to be honest, but things can’t have gone much better, and I really
do not want to return to the position I was in during the first six months of
2013. That was a feeling of insecurity,
frustration and at times, feeling depressed as I started to ponder a life
without any real purpose to it. I love
where I am working at the moment, and ideally will want to continue there in
the short-term. I am still doing a
couple of minor writing tasks in freelance positions, and am attempting to run
two websites at the same time, and that isn’t easy.
Longer term
and the goal is to land a dream job writing in journalism or media – preferably
on sport, but flexible to go into other sectors (excluding politics and
religion!) One area that interests me
and allowed me to develop a new skill earlier this year is travel writing. There is a desire to go travelling at some
point in my life, and that could happen in the future I’ve considered.
When I was at
University, the idea of travelling and seeing the world never really appealed
to me. I’m a close-knitted individual –
in terms of keeping my family and friends close to me, and while I always
wanted to own some kind of property abroad when the money started rolling in,
travelling or living abroad almost full-time just wasn’t a viable option.
That element
changed back in January when I started doing some flexible writing guides for
the website Holiday-Weather.com.
Unfortunately this venture only lasted four months and three travel
destinations, but it was the only element of the first six months of this year
that I look back on with pride and satisfaction. Writing travel guides was right outside my
usual comfort zone, but it was something I took on and got quite excited about. Looking on the internet at some of the
awesome accommodation destinations, and amazing activities made me slightly
jealous of not being there.
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| The world can offer some beautiful sights and shots |
I have been
abroad before and on many occasions too.
My first foreign holiday was to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in
December 1999. As a family, we used to
escape the chilly weather and spend Christmas and sometimes New Year in far
hotter climes. Christmas 2000 was spent
in Tunisia, 2001 in Gran Canaria, 2002 in Tenerife and again in 2005. There have also been holidays in Malaga, Faro
in Portugal and more recently, Fuerteventura in August 2011.
I went to Fuerteventura
in 2011 feeling so happy to leave the UK.
At the time, the country was being burned to the ground with nightly riots
across the land, and it sickened me.
Part of me wished it was a one-way ticket to Fuerteventura. The holiday itself was relaxing, fantastic
and hot, and walking down the promenades near the beach, I actually pictured a
future here and away from Britain for the first time in my life. It is a destination I’d love to return to
again in the future, and who knows what might happen in the longer run.
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| Fuerteventura was a great experience two years ago, and a place I'd love to return to |
There is a
desire to see more of the world now.
Earlier this year with the lack of job opportunities and potential, I
hatched a Plan B to go away for 12 months and see different destinations in a
budget range. The list included cities
such as Paris, Montreal, Abu Dhabi, Auckland in New Zealand and Barcelona. I even briefly considered going to Brazil to
experience the atmosphere of next summer’s World Cup finals. Whilst some of these ambitions were unlikely
and mainly non-starters, it did suggest I was happy to go and explore places I
could never have dreamt of even two years ago.
And that is down to the writing work I did for Holiday-Weather in the
first part of this year.
I am proud to
be British and that faith was restored last year by the way we celebrated the
Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games, something that I had seriously
questioned in 2011 after the riots up and down the land. England will always be my home, and Milton
Keynes will always be my hometown. That
won’t change, but there is now a plan in place should things not work out to go
and spread my wings.
If people
want to go and see the world, whether that is the skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur,
the romance of Venice or Paris, or some of the great wildlife Down Under in Oz,
they should do it. Life is unpredictable
and no-one knows what is around the corner.
While I like to be settled and in a comfort zone of my choice, there is
a travelling factor I am happy to consider.
Being realistic, it is unlikely for me to make a move abroad in the near
future; but it is something I’m considering in my longer-term plans (meaning
around five years down the road etc.)
Make the most
of the possibilities. Go to explore
Monaco’s riches, or the pyramids of Egypt.
Picture a world abroad and the possibilities are endless. What would be your dream destination to live
in the future?
Despite the
worldwide recession created by the unreliable banking sector, there is still
some gorgeous scenery across the planet.
Don’t ever rule out a world move – it could be one of those decisions where
it is scary at first, but the experience becomes totally worth it.
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