It’s my third year out of varsity and I find myself in the unenviable position of unemployment. And so, with time on my hands I decided to revive this blog which I had started in my fourth and final year at varsity as a platform to showcase some of my published work. But, being a blog, it also gives me the flexibility to be opinionated, post some of my photography and share experiences.
The past two-and-a-bit years, since I last posted, have been interesting to say the least. I spent the first few months as a new graduate unemployed, job-hunting and becoming increasingly despondent. After the initial excitement and enthusiasm I left varsity with, it was a very sobering and harsh comedown to reality.
I accepted an unpaid internship at a teen magazine in order to keep myself busy and to gain some experience and contacts while still job hunting. Working for a teen magazine and for no income wasn't exactly how I’d envisaged my bright future to play out and many tears were shed into my pillow at night.
But, once I had overcome the initial indignation and started embracing being completely out of my comfort zone (I don’t regard myself as very clued up when it comes to fashion, beauty and teen celebrities), I learnt an enormous amount about how to write teen-focussed magazine features. On top of this I had to make quizzes for the magazine and started really enjoying the company of some of my colleagues.
And although I’m not into main stream fashion at all, probably some of my best experiences at the magazine were when I accompanied the fashion editor on photo shoots (being a bit of a photography enthusiast myself). One shoot was a products shoot, with no models involved. I saw how the photographer dressed dolls and used a specialised studio table in order to photograph fashion accessories and products. I also went to a studio shoot with models, and was given the opportunity to organise a location shoot for the magazine’s hot boy’s edition.
My mom and I had just climbed out the car in Montagu on Route 62 when I received the email. We were road tripping our way back to Cape Town from my graduation ceremony in Grahamstown and our squeals of excitement (and relief) amused passers-by in the sleepy town.
I had just been offered a journalist job at a brand new community newspaper, Eden Express, in George on the Garden Route.
Barely a month later and I bundled myself and some of my belongings onto a bus to start a new life in a beautiful area that I was familiar with from a few childhood years spent in neighbouring Mossel Bay.
At the risk of sounding clichéd, my 20 months spent at Eden Express was a roller coaster ride of note. Being part of a team that has to start a newspaper from scratch is no easy task. There were numerous teething problems, tears, frustrations and our work hours were characterised by long nights spent in the office (take-aways and wine in the board room helped pull us through the early hours of the morning). But the many resulting victories and successes made up for this.
Within the first few weeks I had learnt how to design the newspaper in order to help take the load off my colleagues and by the time I left the paper I was the main layout artist – an invaluable skill which I’m sure will stand me in good stead one day.
The aim of these small community newspapers is to make a profit for the parent company (so much for my noble ideas of serving the community), and as such we were a very small team. This gave me the opportunity (and also not much of a choice) to write hundreds of articles. The editorial policy of the newspaper was to focus on good news and positive, uplifting stories. One of the main reasons for this was to make us stand apart from other media and because it would've been impossible to compete with our already established competition in terms of providing breaking and hard news.
I immersed myself in feature and profile writing, always pushing myself to find ways to best represent a person or their experiences, always challenging myself to use words in the most descriptive way possible - “painting pictures with words”. I also had to take photos for all my own stories, resulting in many photo spreads in the newspaper and earning me a nomination for a MDDA-Sanlam Local Media Award in the features and profiles photography category.
As with any job, it wasn’t all moonshine and roses. Most of us felt over-worked and frazzled a lot of the time. There were a few staff problems which dampened the morale of the entire team, and then there were the usual head bumping’s and clashes. But at the end of the day, we were a very close-knit team.
After 20 months however, and with no growth opportunities at the paper itself, I felt it was time to spread my wings. When I was offered an investigative journalism internship at amaBhungane, the M&G centre for investigative journalism, I didn’t think twice. I took a massive risk, but at the same time a calculated career move and resigned from Eden Express, and once again, bundled whatever would fit into my little car and drove the 1200km to the big city lights of Johannesburg, where I have spent the last three months.
The past two-and-a-bit years, since I last posted, have been interesting to say the least. I spent the first few months as a new graduate unemployed, job-hunting and becoming increasingly despondent. After the initial excitement and enthusiasm I left varsity with, it was a very sobering and harsh comedown to reality.
Teenage dreams
I accepted an unpaid internship at a teen magazine in order to keep myself busy and to gain some experience and contacts while still job hunting. Working for a teen magazine and for no income wasn't exactly how I’d envisaged my bright future to play out and many tears were shed into my pillow at night.
But, once I had overcome the initial indignation and started embracing being completely out of my comfort zone (I don’t regard myself as very clued up when it comes to fashion, beauty and teen celebrities), I learnt an enormous amount about how to write teen-focussed magazine features. On top of this I had to make quizzes for the magazine and started really enjoying the company of some of my colleagues.
And although I’m not into main stream fashion at all, probably some of my best experiences at the magazine were when I accompanied the fashion editor on photo shoots (being a bit of a photography enthusiast myself). One shoot was a products shoot, with no models involved. I saw how the photographer dressed dolls and used a specialised studio table in order to photograph fashion accessories and products. I also went to a studio shoot with models, and was given the opportunity to organise a location shoot for the magazine’s hot boy’s edition.
Going the community route
My mom and I had just climbed out the car in Montagu on Route 62 when I received the email. We were road tripping our way back to Cape Town from my graduation ceremony in Grahamstown and our squeals of excitement (and relief) amused passers-by in the sleepy town.
I had just been offered a journalist job at a brand new community newspaper, Eden Express, in George on the Garden Route.
Barely a month later and I bundled myself and some of my belongings onto a bus to start a new life in a beautiful area that I was familiar with from a few childhood years spent in neighbouring Mossel Bay.
At the risk of sounding clichéd, my 20 months spent at Eden Express was a roller coaster ride of note. Being part of a team that has to start a newspaper from scratch is no easy task. There were numerous teething problems, tears, frustrations and our work hours were characterised by long nights spent in the office (take-aways and wine in the board room helped pull us through the early hours of the morning). But the many resulting victories and successes made up for this.
Within the first few weeks I had learnt how to design the newspaper in order to help take the load off my colleagues and by the time I left the paper I was the main layout artist – an invaluable skill which I’m sure will stand me in good stead one day.
The aim of these small community newspapers is to make a profit for the parent company (so much for my noble ideas of serving the community), and as such we were a very small team. This gave me the opportunity (and also not much of a choice) to write hundreds of articles. The editorial policy of the newspaper was to focus on good news and positive, uplifting stories. One of the main reasons for this was to make us stand apart from other media and because it would've been impossible to compete with our already established competition in terms of providing breaking and hard news.
I immersed myself in feature and profile writing, always pushing myself to find ways to best represent a person or their experiences, always challenging myself to use words in the most descriptive way possible - “painting pictures with words”. I also had to take photos for all my own stories, resulting in many photo spreads in the newspaper and earning me a nomination for a MDDA-Sanlam Local Media Award in the features and profiles photography category.
As with any job, it wasn’t all moonshine and roses. Most of us felt over-worked and frazzled a lot of the time. There were a few staff problems which dampened the morale of the entire team, and then there were the usual head bumping’s and clashes. But at the end of the day, we were a very close-knit team.
After 20 months however, and with no growth opportunities at the paper itself, I felt it was time to spread my wings. When I was offered an investigative journalism internship at amaBhungane, the M&G centre for investigative journalism, I didn’t think twice. I took a massive risk, but at the same time a calculated career move and resigned from Eden Express, and once again, bundled whatever would fit into my little car and drove the 1200km to the big city lights of Johannesburg, where I have spent the last three months.
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