9th November - 10 year Gradiversary

No doubt you've heard the term 'time flies', but it is pretty crazy just how fast it really does. Today marks 10 years since I graduated, which, in itself, was a culmination of a 15 year goal. Whilst most folk didn't know what they wanted to do whilst still in their teen years, my overall path was always set out from the off. At the age of 5, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was incredibly self-aware, and realised that my superior intelligence on the rest of my class, alongside Deborah O'Brien, the fellow 'boffin' in my class who ended up going to Cambridge University, would stand me in good stead for future. 

At the age of 11, already promising my Mother that I'd go through 'the system' of primary, secondary, sixth form, and then University, I changed my intended purpose ever so slightly, moving away from becoming a book author, to instead pursue a career in journalism. I'd sit in most classes and ignore what was being said, particularly in the boring 'hands on' subjects like Science, or Design & Technology. Why chop up wood or sand down metal, when you could make money from putting pen to paper instead, was my thought process. I'd use the back pages of my exercise books when teachers would never look, to write fictional match reports on sporting events which had not yet occurred, practising for both tabloids and broadsheets, and altering my style accordingly. 

By the time I made the decision to attend University at the nation's number #1 institution for journalism, my writing style was already perfected and self-taught. This wasn't particularly built on during these years, but I did manage to learn a lot more of the practical elements of journalism in this time. Producing news bulletins, video editing, heading out on the street and filming real interviews with real people. By the time I graduated, I was also a Father of one, with a second on the way. I remember seeing the beam on my Mother's face that day, realising that my 15-year promise to her had finally come true. I've always adopted that motto in life, that if you say you're going to do something, you HAVE to do it...

... Never was that more true, than 10 years ago today.