When I was editing some of my earlier posts on this blog, I read back the first story I published in September, when I was new to the course. It is so interesting to me to see how far I've come, with my writing style and my ability in general. When I compare my first story to the story I published most recently, I can tell that I write with more sophistication now, and with more confidence, and this is obvious. I didn't realise my own progress until I was actively looking for it, which shows it really didn't happen overnight like I maybe expected it would. I think I can attribute it to a lot of factors, my understanding of the modules, my lecturer's advice and feedback and in general just finding my own voice and style. I think you can clearly see the progress throughout all posts, as I get more confident with interviewing people and sourcing my own quotes to make my stories better, as well as becoming more aware of my own professionality.
Something that I noticed with my progression was on my first proper Live News Day where the person I wanted to interview wasn't replying and I still had something to produce. Understanding my way around obstacles in journalism and overcoming challenges is something that I would not have been able to accomplish in September. My resilience has improved so much more than I anticipated, and I found myself actually enjoying the challenge.
Something else to consider with my progress is the fact that this learning experience is so different that what I expected it to be. Being in the last years of high school during COVID and moving into my first year of university with coronavirus in the background (and coming more out of the background right now it seems), I really didn’t know quite what to expect with my university education. It has impacted me in some ways, as in being aware that businesses and placement options have changed for students because of the pandemic, but in other ways it has influenced me more because it is an almost completely unprecedented area to work in. Seeing my progress in spite of the pandemic and watching myself get more confident and improve is such a positive boost in what so many people have regarded as a really negative few years.
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