I always find these things a little awkward, don’t you? Let’s pretend we’re at my house (excuse the mess), sitting at my kitchen table (actually we don’t have one of those, so imagine that too) and drinking oversized mugs of tea. You can pick between stale digestives for dunking or a chunk of chocolate cake, that I’ll say I made (but secretly bought yesterday).
Well let’s see, I’m the youngest and shortest of three, born in the summer of 1990. I’ve tried out all sorts of jobs over the years. I contemplated the demolition industry at the age of 3, then decided to follow in my mum’s footsteps and become a hairdresser when I was 6 (thankfully attacked my Barbie and not my sister’s hair), fancied myself as a bit of a Jackson Pollock at the age of 8 and then I got my first paid job at 13, delivering newspapers. Perhaps it’s what you’d call my first bit of experience in the newspaper industry. I quit three years later after getting attacked by dogs. Ironic really, isn’t it?
I crept through college and joined the student magazine. The editor, seemingly juvenile, thought it would be funny to put my articles on page 3 because I was the only member with boobs.
I decided to run for editor the following year, but due to the undemocratic ways of my teachers (and possibly because of the promiscuous offer of a date with my twin sister in return for a vote), I was not allowed to run. I still remember watching the ginger eyebrow of one teacher raise as she questioned whether or not I knew I was going up against a fellow student who was destined for Oxbridge. It seemed like a conspiracy against me and I was left to rot at college for another year. I never saw another edition of the magazine go to print.
Needing something new, I toured the country looking at universities. I didn’t seem to feel like I fitted anywhere until I came to Kent. I turned up to a campus that was covered in fog and as I stood in an empty room, listening to a description of what the newsroom would look like, I decided this was the place for me. It was more new than I ever imagined and I loved it.
So I crammed everything into a car and moved to university. I’m still here now. I launched my own student magazine this year and most people like it, whether it’s because they enjoy reading it or because it’s useful to stop the table in the library wobbling…
Oh look – your tea’s gone cold.
