A Day in the Life...

I sat down at my computer and stared at my map of Southampton, then turned it over and stared even harder at the map of the surrounding area. Southampton is a HUGE city, although I'm perfectly aware that it encompasses many of the smaller satellite towns, it's urban sprawl is massive. To me. Back in Cambridge I was used to the possibility to walk from my house in the suburbs of Cherryhinton to the other side of Cambridge within a couple of hours if I wished; here...I'm not so sure my feet would be up to the challenge.

As a Journalism Student at Southampton Solent I thought I would write a blog, of course as my course leaders had said: "Editors look at applicants who have a 1st but very little experience, and then look at one with a 2nd, but a fistful of clippings and instantly choose the student with paper cuts." As such, I have realised compared to some of my class mates I have very little previous experience with any kind of publishing in any form of Journalism, my total achievements in the field are limited simply to one small article in my Secondary School monthly newsletter about a trip to an Art Gallery in London. Hardly a revolutionary piece.

And glancing through my inbox I noticed an email from my Dad back in Cambridge. It was a link to a blog, much like this one, where a Journalist stated "Eight things that Journalism Students should demand of their Journalism Schools." And glancing through it I realised that I was very lucky, from the course outline I could see my teachers and lecturers were really pulling their fingers out to do a lot of good things for me as a student, but then I noticed two paragraphs:


"A generation ago, no students brought an audience to the table. All anyone had was potential, and employers hired based on that. That's no longer the case. Students who bring their own audience have measurably more value to an employer than those who do not.

Don't get caught behind those students. Get your name out there, now. Find opportunities to publish your best work online, with your name and photo prominently attached. Engage with readers in comments and forums. Demand that your school provide its students with every opportunity to do so."

And I thought to myself: "Well the easiest and cheapest thing to do is create a blog." So here I am. Sitting in my cube in my Halls of Residence in urban Southampton writing about why I wrote this blog. As lame as that sounds.

In this blog I aim to detail my daily experiences, in hope of gaining a bit of experience in the field so that I may give myself an advantage. Anyone who knows me will recoil in horror or jump up and cheer at the thought of me being proactive, but everyone has to grow up one day, and I guess my day will come pretty soon.

-Ross