Why you need to take the career pressure off in your twenties | World Mental Health Week

My twenties were fucking exhausting. I started and finished a dental nursing course; then I started and completed a degree in media communications; I met my future husband; worked a couple of jobs while waiting for my break in marketing; then spent the rest of my twenties feeling as though I was playing career catch up by progressing myself quickly.

In summary, it was a ton of effort to climb as high as I could to only fall down from the top of the ladder anyway. (That does sound a bit dramatic and I was out of my twenties by this point, but I’m still feeling a bit burnt after being made redundant shortly after returning to work from maternity leave).

But in saying that, would I go back and change anything? No. I needed every single one of those different experiences to shape my future self, the one I am now who empowers capability.

My mental health during those years was at its most unstable, which is why my advice to others is to not feel like you have to go at a hundred miles an hour during your twenties to achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself. You’ll get there, you have time, believe me.

During my teenage years I battled depression and medication supported me through those very deep lows. But gradually I learnt to recognise when I was about to take a dive and reached out for help during those times which is what got me through and eventually, able to cope without medication.

I spent most of my twenties in the grasp of social anxiety and it wasn’t much fun. It has never gone away but I have better control now during triggering situations, and how best to navigate them.

I didn’t mind school but a few things a certain teacher said to me when I was making those bigger decisions about my future triggered an exhausting need to constantly be proving myself to others in the years following. Proving I was/am actually clever (we stan August babies!); I am capable; and I can achieve anything I set my heart to.

I spent my twenties feeling as though I had to be able to articulate exactly where I was going and fully back-up all my decisions, and to be fair I pretty much did to anyone that stopped still long enough. If I was feeling unsatisfied, I went looking for the next thing.

I wanted to sprint, not just run, but sprint to the next stage of development. I felt arriving into marketing at twenty-five I had to play catch up and race to progress myself. The one positive of this was that I never got too comfortable in a job, once I was ready for progression if the opportunity wasn’t there (and it invariably wasn’t), I moved on.

Turning thirty was a bit daunting for sure, but life this side is so much better and calmer (even with toddlers turning the house upside down on the daily!).

Did you know that Oprah when she was 23 years-old got fired by her employer? It was probably a huge punch in the gut for her, but how life changing was it? Huge probably. But she (still) went on to become Oprah.

Was that firing instrumental to Oprah’s overall success? I don’t know but it shows that somethings though big at the time, will be just mere bumps in the road in the long run. That is basically your twenties in a nutshell; a series of bumps that just make you re-navigate your path.

So remember that set-backs aren’t always bad; it’s okay to experience failure.

To anyone reading this and the above is sounding very familiar to you, take the career pressure off a little. Please.

Maybe you’re stressing about when it will be the right time to have a baby, or have your thirtieth birthday in your sights as the time to have all those career goals met, just stop. There is time and if you’re motivated you’ll get it done, and then you’ll reflect back on these years and realise there is truth in what you are reading now.

But in all seriousness, mental health is something to be aware of and keep in the forefront of your mind as something to protect. Life is complicated, we fill it to the brim with too much a lot of the time so learn self care, take the time for it, and NEVER be afraid to reach out for help if you need it.

Until next time x

“I empower capability”: International Women’s Day 2023

Happy International Women’s Day 2023!

A couple of years ago I wrote about how I felt the workplace had badly let me down, and International Women’s Day brought grief rather than celebration.

I didn’t feel powerful as a woman as I felt that becoming a mum killed my career, the career I had spent my twenties exclusively building… for what?! I hadn’t planned to experience that or feel that way, and it took some time to readjust and work out how to move myself forward.

I don’t need to repeat those frustrations and everything I felt at the time, you can read it here.

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Come Dine with Me: The Professionals – Celebrating the winning menu at The Coconut Tree Reading

A couple of weeks ago I was invited back to The Coconut Tree Reading to enjoy more of their delicious Sri Lankan street food to celebrate the restaurant’s founders, Shamil and Rodrigo, winning Come Dine With Me: The Professionals*.

“The Coconut Tree is an authentic family and friends-run Sri Lankan restaurant group, passionate about sharing uniquely Sri Lankan flavours with the world.”

During October and November, the chef’s took their winning menu on tour around the United Kingdom to eight of their restaurant sites (locations here), which included bringing along their Hopper Station for guests to try their hand at making their own bowl-shaped coconut milk pancakes.

Come dine with me the professionals
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Internships in London: four reasons why London is great for starting your journalism and media career

Have you ever considered coming to London from abroad or maybe even elsewhere in the UK to explore internship opportunities? Or maybe you’re already here living the city life working in another industry but dream of starting a new career path in journalism and media.

I have written before about the benefits of work experience which I am a strong advocate for, particularly while at college or university and making those critical decisions about your future career.

What is an internship?

Internships take work experience a step further, they last longer and fully immerse you (likely a student or graduate) into your chosen field of work as you learn the ropes of the job and gain knowledge about the industry and its key people. There may be a degree of tea making, but internships are treated as real jobs and therefore the expectation of you and your fellow interns is higher.

Having a good internship under your belt and listed on your CV can be worth its weight in gold, particularly if you’re ambitious and looking to fast track yourself into higher paid positions of employment quicker.

Internships also differ in their style of format, some are brand or company hosted, meaning that you go to work for an often large organisation in-house that funds their own internship program to attract the best (graduate) talent. Fabulous if you can snap up a lucrative place on one of these programs, but they are hugely competitive and often require a long and intense application process.

Journalism internships London

Alternatively you can opt for an internship that operates like a course, where your learning and work cover a number of companies and/or brands that you may later be employed by.

This is what Journalism internships London offers and while it is a paid for course, it offers a broader experience in journalism which at the beginning of your career, can support a better foundation of learning as you’re not constrained by one set of ideas and way to do things that an in-house internship program might do.

If the prospect of an internship wasn’t exciting enough, London is an amazing city, bustling with a diverse multi-cultured array of people, art, music, theater, and history, and a wealth of magnificent sightseeing to list just a few reasons to visit and study here; you would never be without things to do.

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John Lewis Christmas Advert 2022 and before: Why I hate them

To be clear, I don’t hate the John Lewis Christmas advert(s), I hate the hype that precedes their launch each year and it’s been going on for so long, that resenting these adverts before they air has become ingrained in my very being.

John Lewis Christmas advert 2022

Once upon a time, over on a blog before this one, way before blogging was cool, I used to round up and review all the Christmas adverts, and that little annual tradition of mine continued over here in 2014, 2015 and 2016. A tradition I loved and still love, but I feel that the John Lewis Christmas advert kind of killed it off as it overtook everything else. A bit like how the winner of the X Factor stole the Christmas number one slot for many years until the rest of the music industry finally rebelled and told it to fuck off.

My earliest memory of the John Lewis Christmas advert is the 2010 ‘She’s always the woman’ which at the time I remember really enjoying, probably more so for it’s sound track.

In the years since, as I wrote in those Christmas advert posts, John Lewis seemed to not only get cocky with their king of the Christmas advert title, but also seemed to really go out of their way to make viewers cry. I would have coped with this if it wasn’t for the stupid viewers who in their thousands fell over themselves trying to be the one who could declare the most about how much the stupid adverts made them cry which, -excuse the pun- bored me to tears. I mean just bore off.

Buster the Boxer, John Lewis’ 2016 Christmas advert entry was brilliant and I loved it. I rejoiced in everyone else’s disappointment in how it lacked emotion and no one was able to update their Facebook status in the usual way. This advert was fun and temporarily broke their typical Christmas advert formula.

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2022

Usually I wait to see all the Christmas adverts organically on TV, I like the experience of spotting them among the hum drum of a typical ad break. But at the time of writing, we are between service providers and relying entirely on catch up which has ruined the Christmas advert joy for me this year *shakes fist at the TV*.

As per, ahead of viewing this year’s advert, I see articles and social media posts saying how sad it is so even though I am hardened emotionally to their advertising, I am willing to feel the feels. However, the 2022 John Lewis Christmas advert is not in the least bit sad, or Christmassey. It is a lovely advert with a lovely ending that hits home, but it’s not a Christmas advert.

Call me old fashioned and I do totally get that messaging needs to not be super fluffy at this time of year because life is getting tough for all of us, some more so and absolutely awareness and support needs to be shared across the board. But Christmas is also the time to try and forget those things, or at least push to the back of our minds a little.

It’s a time for family, for joy, for decorations and tacky lights, for carols, for gifting. I live for the afternoon Channel 5 Hallmark Christmas films that are so bad they’re brilliant. I need that in my Christmas adverts, I need to be reminded about how fun this time of year can be. I need to see snowy landscapes, and Christmas trees, and children giddy in anticipation of Santa’s visit.

I don’t want sadness, because I have that in my reality as December approaches. I don’t want to be sad when I am looking for escapism, I don’t want to be sad for my children who are in those very very early years of learning how magical Christmas can be. I want to lose myself in Christmas crap that I pull out of the garage each year.

For me, I am still wholeheartedly trying to cling onto the idea that it’s not Christmas until I see the Cocoa Cola advert on TV but even I have to resign at some point reluctantly and admit that actually, John Lewis have probably got this in the bag now, sort of.

The John Lewis Christmas advert has become it’s own event in its own right. People look forward to it, they enjoy the experience of knowing it’ll probably make them cry, and honestly, is this so bad? It’s not, but I’ll still go out of my way to tell you that it’s just not for me. Try harder next year JL.

Until next time x

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