May Goals

2019, goals

Hello!

Another month, another post about goals! Although April wasn’t the best month for me, I made a really good dent in my April Goals and I’m ready to smash my May Goals too!

These one’s are themed mostly off my self-analysis from looking at my work experience and gaps in my CV so I’m going to start filling them. Let’s jump right into it!

write for something other than my blog – I love writing, I love creative writing and I love my blog but if I want to be a more rounded copywriter and get more work in the future I need to prove that I can write for publications other than my own! I’ve not done any research into this yet but whether it’s a local publication, a feature pitch or maybe guest writing on someone’s blog, I want to kick start building up a portfolio properly.
practice photography – last month I worked really hard on learning the basics of photography that I never got to grips with at uni and at the weekend I went to a dance convention at the weekend and I was really pleased with the photos I took, however I now know that I need a new lens. The kit lens has done me well but if I really want to start taking better pictures I need to update my lenses and get out there and practice!
develop work experience in marketing / get some more presenting experience – I’ve got lots of work experience at some amazing companies but it’s not too relevant to what I want to go into and whilst I’m in the fortunate position of having flexible work and living at home, I might as well get as much work experience as I can! I also want to see if I can get some more presenting experience – I love presenting and I really didn’t take the opportunities I should have at uni so I’m going to make my own now. Whether it’s doing my own little news projects, doing something a bit different or finding work experience elsewhere, maybe local radio or TV? Again, I’ve not looked into it much yet but I want to make a start this month.
finish project at work – I’ve got an ongoing project in my part-time work and I’d really lost momentum with it but I hit the realisation that if I don’t like how this project is turning out, I need to edit it to make it better and work till I don’t hate it. I need to finish it this month for sure.
lose 5 pounds – shock horror, I’m still trying to lose weight. I’m doing really well – I hit my last goal of being under 100kg and my next goal is to hit the 2 stone mark from my heaviest weight but 5 pounds is my goal for the month. I started the Couch to 5k this morning (probably a bit optimistic to start talking about it now!) and I’m feeling good about it all, I’m determined!

I’m really focused on making more progress this month – I don’t want to be too open and bare all but these last few weeks have been really tough and my anxiety has been a real pain in the ass and I’m trying my best to gently work through it. I can only try my best, but having these mini goals to concentrate on really helps.

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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know how good you are – working @ Reading Festival 2017

2017, lifestyle, music, photography, student, travel

Hello!

Getting the chance to work at Reading Festival as a Camera Operator was something I was never going to turn down – if I had to apply in any other way I wouldn’t have got it because I haven’t done any camera opping before, but my housemate was recruiting and he took a chance on me (hopefully he thinks it paid off).

When I went to Channel 4 and BBC Three (and Sky next week) I always say there was no luck – I spent a lot of time and effort getting those placements and there was no luck involved. Reading however – it’s all because I happen to live with the guy that needed camera ops. Obviously there was a bit of skill involved – if he didn’t think I’d be good at it he’d have said no but Reading was all chance, and I’m very, very grateful for it.

Watching every act from the side or right in front of the stage is something I’ve dreamed of for so long

I was so unbelievably anxious before we left I can’t even put it into words – I felt ill, I was overanalysing everything and I contemplated not going because I was so scared of getting things wrong or being bad. But I knew I couldn’t turn down Reading.

And I went. And I did well. And I loved it.

Camera 2 – my favourite Camera

I learnt a lot about how to work the cameras but I also realised how much I already knew – I know what a good shot looks like, I knew to keep an eye on what was happening on stage, what the other ops were filming and the crowd (filming someone holding a Lightning McQueen balloon was a highlight of the weekend).

I felt comfortable doing the job – it was like I’d found something that I should have been doing all along – filming live music, surrounded by artists, techies and heavy bass. I don’t think I would camera op for the rest of my life, but working with bands in environments like this is what I want to do. Now I have more of a focus to get to that.

The crowd for ‘The Hunna’ were absolutely mental, favourite crowd of the whole weekend

No one really expected me to excel at this festival, and I don’t think I’m the kind of person to make the assumption that I did, but I did learn this – have faith in your own skills, don’t be afraid to say you’re capable and you’re good enough. I’m definitely the sort of person who puts themselves down (to no end), assumes that I will never be good enough and I’m afraid to apply for jobs or work experience opportunities in roles that I could do but I haven’t done before but I know what I’m good at.

The last sunset of Reading 2017

I’m a good writer, I know how to film and edit good videos, I know how to take a good photo, I’m a good presenter and I’m really good at research and organisation. And there’s nothing wrong with knowing your skills or talking about them.

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go to Reading and prove this to myself. I am capable of it even if there are people who would quite happily tell me I’m not.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

The sunrise at Basingstoke station on 6.30am on Monday morning was worth the all nighter

commuting to London

2017, lifestyle, travel

Hello!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I was commuting into London and I’m really glad to not be travelling by train every single day anymore, but it was a really interesting experience and I thought I’d share a few tips on how to survive commuting in London (or any other city!), because it definitely took a bit of getting used to.

1) Be ready to sit next to a stranger, if you get to sit at all – morning rush hour trains are busy, everyone wishes they had two seats to themselves but it’s never going to happen at that time of day. The person next to you cares about you as much as you care about them; they don’t, so just get on with whatever you’re doing (listening to music, bit of laptop work, MarioKart) and don’t worry about.

2) Everything runs like clockwork at that time in the morning – you’ll get used to the train being in the station at the exact same time every day and you’ll see the same faces, the same people yawning and falling asleep on the train, you’ll know every stop the train goes to and you’ll start to get bored real quick.

3) Once getting in to London, you’ll have to join to stream of people heading for the underground. No doubt there’ll be some sort of accident or one of the escalators will have stopped working or someone will be standing in the middle of the stairwell trying to figure out which way they’re meant to be going. The real advice: know which route you’re taking, know if you’re going northbound or southbound (or east or west, you get it) and just head down and go for it, everyone’s in a rush, just go with it.

4) Don’t push past people to get to the barriers – these are seasoned commuters and they’re easily angered. As long as you’re not running late, just go with the flow and let the stroppy men do their thing.

5) Men in suits are the norm and they will judge you for being female, not dressed formally, dressed formally, listening to music, sitting at a table, having a Macbook, having a windows laptop; literally everything. The men who wear a suit to work and commute into London every day either are in a really well paid job, are really stuck up, or hate their job. They’re assholes on the tube and you giving them a death glare will not change them.

6) When getting on a train at the end of the day, the further you walk down the train the quieter it will be – totally worth the extra walk.

Commuting into London, or any city, isn’t particularly fun. For me, work experience on the other end and coming home to my family every night was totally worth it. Have any questions? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

why finishing uni is terrifying

2017, student

Hello!

Next week I go back for my second semester of my second year of uni, and yesterday I said the words out loud ‘I graduate next year’ – the thought of finishing uni that soon absolutely terrifies me. But that’s not unusual.

Hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of prospective graduates are scared of graduating because employment isn’t great, a lot of people have to move home and there’s a very high chance that you’ll be even poorer whilst facing a lot of debt.

Oh yes, wow, that really is terrifying isn’t it?

But I think I’ve figured out why! Aren’t I clever (note: the sarcasm)?

Ever since I’ve started school, the rest of my journey has been pretty much planned out for me – from primary school, to secondary school and then the assumption is that you’ll go to university (though, more and more, it’s not the norm) and after that it’s completely up to me to decide my future.

From the age of about 4 to around 21 (ish) your life is entirely planned for you.

Whilst it can be really exciting to finally take control of what you do and start carving your own path, it can also be overwhelmingly daunting – I’m beginning to see the looming future of nothing and that’s why it’s really scary! There are so many options but I have to pick one and work my way up through it and start a career, which is in equal parts exciting and terrifying! Maybe not equal, maybe slightly less exciting.

But then things start to pick up – when you start to see your hard work reflected in your grades and your tutors give you such lovely comments and it all starts to feel worth it, like maybe we can take on the working world.

I’ve been given the chance to do a two week work experience placement with BBC Three in February and March this year – I’m still sorting out when I’m going with my university tutors and course leader but I’m definitely going to be documenting the whole thing and I can’t wait to share more with you!

Finishing uni is scary, but with potentially doing a masters and then getting to start the journey to making my mark on the world? It’s going to be okay in the end.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

Writing at a festival!

2016

Hello!

I was offered the chance to work as a copywriter at NASS Festival with my uni’s production company Solent Productions. I was super nervous about the whole weekend but it worked out really well – the marketing team gave us an overall weekend project rather than short immediate deadlines which suited my anxiety just fine!

I did suffer major anxiety that weekend and I spent about two hours each night on the phone to Lucas just to calm me down, but that’s not very fun to talk about so I’m talking about the fun stuff.

My task was to write Buzzfeed-style ‘listicles’ (I did not come up with that word, that came from the marketing team and I want no association with it… it’s such an awful word) so I wrote posts like ‘8 Best Things About NASS 2016’ and articles along those lines. As soon as I have the links I’ll post everything I wrote from the weekend! Alongside the list posts, I was given the freedom to write basically whatever I want so I wrote up a couple of artists interviews and a fun article about the importance of the street art at NASS.

So at first is was mostly just brain storming ideas, thinking of the contents of each of the lists and browsing around the festival to gather information. Then over the course of the weekend I went and took some pictures, used some of the footage that the camera ops had been out to film and learnt to make gifs. I can make gifs now! Look!

I’m not sure why it’s so slow but I made it! Still very proud of this skill I acquired.

But sitting in a portacabin all weekend was actually really boring so whilst I spend the time I was in there writing, I went out of my way to find other things to do where I was still helpful, still gathering information for myself and not staying in a very small room all day.

(I’ve consequently given myself a lot more work to do this week since I’ve been back but it’s been fun either way!)

I knew I wanted to attend a few of the interviews that we as a production team were conducting because I intended to write them up as articles but towards the end of Saturday and Sunday I went to every interview we were doing to both practice my interview skills as a journalist and help out the producer who was being given a lot of phone numbers and a lot of people not showing up.

Having access to all areas was super fun, we got to go behind main stage, I got to meet so many artists and the free food at catering was actually great, I was expecting burger van chips all weekend.

The highlight of the weekend, for me, was helping set up an interview with Enter Shikari – they were the only band I’d heard of the whole weekend and they were there as we were interviewing someone else so we just asked them if they were up for an interview and it was actually one of the best interviews we did all weekend. The band were so chill and so sweet and I saw Rory the next day and I think he recognised me, it was really fun and I really hope I get crewed for another festival so I get to do it all again.

In terms of reading what I wrote this weekend, I finished writing the last piece today and I’m going to finish off all the gifs today and tomorrow then send it all to the marketing team.

I’m so grateful to have been given this opportunity and I want to thank both NASS Festival and Solent Productions!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

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Preparing to work at a festival!

2016, music

Hello!

I leave for NASS tomorrow and I just thought I’d jot a few thoughts down before I leave so I can compare them when I get back – don’t worry, I’ll feed back!

Packing is a little bit daunting – I followed the list of things that’s recommended to bring and part of me feels like I’m overpacking and the other part of me thinks that I’ve left for too much behind. So far, I’ve got a lot of space left in my bags and Lucas has given me some advice based on his experience at Glastonbury, but I’m still concerned.

I’m actually really nervous about the whole thing – I’ve never been to a festival, it’s been a long time since I last camped and I’ve not done any journalism style copywriting since about March so the more I think about it, the more nervous I get. My stomach feels funny and I’ve been grumpy for a few days now… sorry Lucas!

I’m just worried that my laptop will run out of charge or I won’t be writing anything right or I’ll get lost or I just won’t fit in with anyone else there or maybe I’ll be the only one that hasn’t done a festival before or maybe I’ll be the only one not drinking or I’ll get really anxious and worry too much.

Can you tell I’m worrying a lot about little things that probably won’t matter at all?

I think because this is something I’m considering a future in, I’ve put a lot into what this weekend will be so it’s more daunting than it already is.

But I am trying to think of it as exciting – it’s a weekend out of Southampton, surrounded by music and hopefully like minded people… hopefully. I’m in a kind of negative, pessimistic mood which isn’t helping right now.

I really am trying to remain optimistic, I really am!

I just want to be good and do well.

(Also, I’m taking my DSLR camera, even though I’m not a photographer, so I can get lots of photos for you guys!)

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx