Reflecting on my first year as a journalist

It’s coming up to a year now since I finished up my last university assignment and I cannot believe where the time has gone.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the wonderful bubble that is university life by the way, I sometimes I wish I could go back and have just one more week there; a few more lectures, a couple of nights out where I’d come back to my own flat and crawl into bed at 4am with a head full of new memories. One more chance to go to my favourite park at sunset, one last time to hand in an assignment on Moodle and count down in my head ‘three, two, one’ before hitting the submit button with my heart racing.

If you’re reading this and you’re still a student - make the most of it. You’ll be surprised, even the days that didn’t feel like much at the time, even the tears and squabbles with flat mates become memories you can laugh at. Covid definitely robbed me of many more memories that I could have made and I’m still mourning those opportunities that I never got to make the most of.

But here I am - I’m 22, I’m a published journalist and it will never sink in that this is what I get paid to do. People actually want to pay me for my words, my writing - something I’ve only ever scribbled in notebooks, blogs or onto Word documents for marked academic work. It’s a privilege and anyone who knows me or follows me on social media can probably tell how proud I am of what I do.

Around this time last year, I wrote a blog post talking about how much growth I went through during my time at university. So now I’m going to share the lessons I’ve learnt with you, one year into being a ‘proper’ journalist.

• Telling people what you do for a living sparks some interesting reactions - Any time I’ve had to tell someone what my job is I am usually met with ‘Ooh, I’ve never met a journalist before’, ‘Have you met anyone famous?’, ‘You do have a proper journalist-y name’, or my favourite which is just ‘Really?’. Some people don’t believe me and I have to get links to my work on my phone before I get met with 20 questions and in all honesty I get it. I probably don’t look like the classic image of a journalist - I look young, I dress in a wacky manner sometimes and it’s a lesson I had to learn too: Journalists don’t have a ‘look’ - shocking!

• Prepare to be humbled by feedback, but it’s okay! - Just when you’re on a role of whacking out a multitude of features and pieces of work you think are top notch, you may be hit with everyone’s favourite word, feedback. I’ve had a few occasions now where I’ve had to edit work and re-shape it. It can really suck sometimes, but it happens to us all, and the more engaged you are with taking it on board and fixing any mishaps quickly the better it looks for you and the more people will respect you for it. There’s no shame in being criticised, this is a creative industry to an extent, and people’s opinions differ.

• Your parents will bring out the ‘my child is a journalist’ card - Last year I bought a new car and the garage that sold it to me fit it with the wrong battery. My mum was soon on the phone with the journalist card; ‘It’s a good job you’ve agreed to put it right really because she’s actually a journalist.’ I think this sort of thing has happened a couple of times now, so if you’re an upcoming journo, prepare yourself!

• Sneak previews, freebies and other journo privileges never get old - The thrill of listening to an album that hasn’t been released yet is a feeling like no other, I can only compare it to when you wake up in morning and do a tremendous stretch and also realise that you don’t need to pee and you have another hour left to sleep before your alarm - bliss.

• Whatever you do, DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS, I BEG - Please for the love of the journo gods, do not read the comments on any of your stories. One lesson I have learned is that most people will have no issue with you or the stories you write, in fact a good chunk of them probably think they’re great! But these people are much less likely to comment, usually because they have more than one functioning brain cell and you know - hobbies and a life. Comments are always crawling with nastiness and stupidity, as tempting as it is don’t read them. The only criticism you should listen to is that of your editor. Most people with nice things to say often message me privately and that always makes my day.

• Some of your relatives won’t really get it unless it’s in print, just a heads up - Some of your family, especially the older generation, might not really understand the weight of your achievements unless it's in a print newspaper or magazine, or you’ve interviewed someone they know. It’s just what they’re used to! Don’t worry about it.

• Famous people aren’t as scary as you think - I’ve found that my perception of fame has changed a lot. Interviews have shown me that famous, successful people are exactly that, just people. Anyone who’s rude (and luckily so far, all of my interviewees have been amazing) has the problem - not you! As long as you know that you’re asking the right questions, being respectful and ethical, you have nothing to worry about.

• People think you’re rich - I can confirm I am not a millionaire and I still find myself in Tesco thinking, ‘should I really be buying this meal deal right now?’. Side note, if you don’t get a smoothie and get the most out of the deal I really don’t know what to tell you, and if you get that lone boiled egg in the plastic packaging we simply will never be friends, okay? Okay.

• Your confidence will soar and it’s the best feeling ever - With each piece of work I do, every interview I complete, every achievement I make, my self belief grows a little bit more. And it feels soooo good. I am naturally shy, I used to get nervous even answering ‘here’ during registration at school. I had my confidence torn down a lot growing up whether it be bullying about the way I look, bullying about my knowledge of music, all sorts! Someone once told me ‘you’re not going to be the next JK Rowling’, - but maybe I don’t want to be the next anyone, I want to be the first Rachel Roberts. Don’t get me wrong I’m still a walking blob of anxiety, I am riddled with imposter syndrome on a weekly basis, but I am much more confident than I was at 18. I sometimes catch myself speaking to others, whether it be through networking or interviewing and I actually take myself back a little, like, who am I? Is this really me speaking with this much confidence?

So yeah - I’d say those are the core lessons so far. And I’m only just beginning, how exciting is that? I am learning every day, through trial and error. I still have so many goals left to achieve - I have a bucket list of people I want to interview, I’d love to write a book someday, do press at a red carpet, maybe work on a documentary.

I was lucky to land a full-time role in local news when I left uni and I was there for roughly 10 months where I sent out email newsletters and ran social media, it was all priceless experience and now I’m fully freelance. Never in a million did I dream I’d be my own boss but I’m loving it.

Working in this industry is not a walk in the park, sometimes you feel like nobody wants you to write for them and you’re the worst writer in the world, then others your diary is jam packed and you feel on top of the world. It’s all part of the fun.

So, I just want to take the time to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who reads or shares my work. Thank you if you ever re-tweeted a journo request of mine. Thank you if you’re an editor reading this and you’ve commissioned me! Thank you to all the publicists and PR whizzes, thank you to my interviewees. Thank you if you taught me, without my lecturers and teachers over the years, I wouldn’t be in this amazing career.

Thank you a million times.