How I ended up in journalism

When the time came for me to choose a career path that I saw fit for me it was a very hard decision to make.

Instead of thinking about it throughout high school I was too busy stressing about boyfriends whose last names I cannot even remember now. I had three options in my mind though, it was either I became a medical student which I only liked because of Meredith Grey on Grey’s anatomy. Also I figured which parent would not like to have a doctor for a daughter?

My second option and my personal favourite was studying dramatic arts, I loved this also because I figured I could play a doctor in a television series (Grey’s anatomy.) I realised later though that it is not that easy to be an actress and I feared being stuck at home with no job after having gotten a diploma in dramatic arts. I am not much of a risk taker and neither is my mother who had to agree with the course I was going to take because after all she was going to pay for it.  

So I had to look at my third option, an option that I knew would be a win-win situation for me and my family. My last option was journalism, it became my option because if anything has been constant in my life, it has been my love for writing and a general interest in media. So becoming a journalist became my more realistic choice of study.

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I knew that it would open up a lot of different doors for me, if ever I wanted to be a presenter it would be possible also I could acquire skills in photography, videography, radio, new media etc. with journalism alone I would get to do more and have fun which has always been more important to me than money, because let’s face it we have all heard that journalists do not get paid that much (whatever that means) and my first option of being a doctor would have led me to having a lot of money.

So cutting forward I ended up choosing journalism. I am now doing my last semester of the course, a choice that I think was the best one I could have made. I have fallen in love with the deadlines and constant interest in everything going on in the world. I am a better person and cannot wait for the rest of my life as a journalist to begin.

A quote I always keep in mind is that of Horace Greeley, “Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.”