It is so easy to doubt yourself and forget how amazing you are. We all do so much, but we’re all so busy that so much of what we do is lost in the ether when we fail to put things in perspective. I’m just as guilty as anyone of forgetting all the hard work I put in and just thinking that I am no better than anyone else despite all my training and experience, so it is wonderful when you spend time with people who are impressed with what you have done because it reminds you to be proud of what you have achieved.
I’ve had a few weeks like this lately where I have forgotten to be proud of all I have done because I have been too caught up in worrying about what I have yet to achieve. But thanks to a kind colleague who started talking to me about the future, I was able to put things back into perspective and ended up feeling pretty proud of myself. I also had a lovely Christmas meal out with a couple of friends, and a couple of others who I had not met before. By having to explain everything that I do for work, training and outside of work for the festival website I saw how impressed they were by what I did and it reminded me that I have done very well after a lot of hard work.
I also happened to be flicking through some old articles and came across a copy of an article that my former editor wrote about the weekly column I used to write while at university. He was defending my column after a couple of older people had complained that I was partying too much and not studying enough (Sure showed them when I left university with a 2.1!). It was great to see him write so proudly about my column and about my talents as a journalist, and it really spurred me on with my studies. It was also amazing publicity for both me and my column because the article was published on a huge journalism website called Hold The Front Page which is essentially news about news and newspapers. I still can’t believe that there is an article about me on this website! The piece also reminded me of something I had forgotten, that I had actually had a front page story on my week of work experience at the paper – only there for five days and I had my name on the front page. Maybe I am a natural!
My favourite quote of the piece is “She gets criticised by the boring brigade but she’s telling the readers what’s really going on.” – this is a great way of describing the way I live my life. Boring people might want to criticise the way I live, but I’m just doing what thousands of other people are – having a good time with life! Amazing to think this was only three years ago, but I really love that I was so controversial and that I was getting people’s back up – surely that is the point of good journalism, to provoke a reaction?
I also really love the comment at the bottom of the article saying “Jeffrey Bernard would have been proud!” – What an accolade!
Here is the link to the article if you would like to read it in detail…
AbsolutelyLucy 