When I was really young, I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. But who wasn’t seriously interested in digging up dinosaur bones for a living when they were little?
Nowadays my only goal for the future is to write books and get them published. I’m talking epic fantasies with tons of action, intrigue, and other awesome things. If I’m capable of it, I’d like to do some Tolkien-level fantasy here.
I’ve been creating worlds and characters and creatures since before I can remember. It’s just something that came naturally to me. I like imagining how the people I create will react to certain situations, or the way that two characters would interact if they met.
I have spent hours (days even) just trapped in my mind, conjuring up things that could never exist in this plane of reality. I guess thinking about imaginary worlds has become a sort of escape for me, because thinking about dragons and magic sounds way more interesting to me than worrying about paying the bills.
Naturally, some of my friends and family were a bit confused when I enrolled at SAIT in the Journalism program. Reporting real- life events and creating entire fantastical worlds are sort of at opposite ends of the writing spectrum, after all.
Looking back, I think taking the program wasn’t my smartest move. I’ll concede that I did learn a lot of things, like how to write more formally and lots of crazy grammar and style rules that I didn’t even know existed.
Probably the most important thing I learned from taking a Journalism program is that being a journalist is really not for me. Which I think is a fair lesson to learn because sometimes you need to try something before you decide you don’t like it.
But I’ve enjoyed the experience none-the-less. There were a lot of hard-learned lessons along the way, and I appreciate how supportive everyone around me has been through the whole experience.
Working at a real newspaper has been a particularly interesting experience for me. It’s definitely far out of my comfort zone, but they say that moving outside of that zone is the only way for you to grow.
I’ve gotten to talk to a lot of fascinating people during my four weeks here, and I’ve learned a great deal about Airdrie and Rocky View that I had no idea about prior to this.
As a closing note, I’d like to thank all of the people who were so kind and understanding during my month here.
I’m excited to move forward towards the next part of my life, and I welcome the challenges tomorrow will bring.
