The Realisation About My MA

It's been brewing in my mind for a while but last night when thinking through all that has happened over the past year, my thoughts were solidified.

Blogruary Day 26: The Class

As Blogruary draws to a close, I find myself running out of things to write about.

Blogruary Day 18: The Room

There is a computer room at university that is specially assigned to Master's students. Today, it was taken over.

We had a three and a half hour gap in between classes today so, determined to make the most of the time, we planned to go to our usual room.

After an editorial meeting, we set off to the room only for a class-mate to inform us that the room was taken.

How dare these random room thieves take our room! It was specially designated to post-graduate students but here was a class taking over.

We eventually found another room but it wasn't the same. It didn't have the atmosphere that our usual room had.

I went back an hour later to see if it was free where I ran into another class-mate. Yet another class had taken the room for the hour and time was running out until my next class of the day.

I must be getting old because that room has become more than a room. It has become my sanctuary at university. It has become my second home.

Blogruary Day 17: The Essay

I finally managed to finish off an essay that had been cooking for quite a while.

Blogruary Day 14: The Degree Dilemma

This has been a difficult week for everyone on my MA course. It has been a long and dragging week with little good news.

Blogruary Day 12: The Pull-Out

Part of the MA Journalism course that I am doing involves together a pull-out supplement to go with the university newspaper.

Blogruary Day 4: The Newspaper

I must be one of the few young people who regularly reads a newspaper daily, though I guess this is to be expected seeing as I'm studying for an MA Journalism degree.

Blogruary Day 2: The Lock Up

I've noticed something worrying about my life. I don't particularly like weekends.

Blogruary Day 1: The Survey Man

The MA degree that I am studying is supposed to prepare us for our first full-time, proper, real life job. I say that because we have classes from 9-5 every day. That is apart from Friday, which we have off.

The Catch Up Blog

I should start off this blog with an apology, having not posted in nearly four weeks.

In that time I ushered in 2013 in a tiny, empty and run-down pub in Kingston watching the fireworks on television having not made it in time to get into a livelier, hipper pub.

The beginning of the year also saw me endure daily hour-long journeys into London to have a useful two-week work experience placement with The Sunday Times Travel Magazine. Whilst I will probably now suffer the consequences of not going to a local paper to fill my portfolio further, the opportunity to work at News International can only look good on my CV. I hope...

Since that placement finished, I have enjoyed not having to suffer a daily commute and I began what I call 'Homework Club' with my remaining friends at home. It's been a semi-productive two-weeks where the highlight has been writing 1/3rd of an essay due in for the end of May.

I've been studying my timetable for the coming term of my degree and I decided that it is best if I agree to just write off my life for the next three months. It is that busy, but I still hold out hope that this MA will be worth in in the long run.

As I realised that I perhaps didn't write enough last term, I have decided to write every day from February 1st. So in February, I will blog every single day. It will be termed 'Blogruary'.

So make sure to subscribe to the blog. I will see you in February.

The New Year's Resolutions

Another year has passed by and we are soon to welcome in 2013. The world didn't end and the Olympic Games went off quite well which makes this year a qualified success in the eyes of many people.

However, 2012 has been a very mixed year on a personal level.

I graduated from university with a very respectable 2:1 degree and I began an MA degree which will hopefully lead to a job that I will enjoy.

In a way though, 2012 has been a year of endings as my university experience at Reading and enjoyable, independent lifestyle came crashing to a halt.

It is at this time of the year that I would usually be desperately creating a New Year's Resolution which would usually result in 'I will not bite my nails'. That itself always fails mere minutes into the new year.

This year though, I feel like I actually have resolutions which are do-able and genuinely life-improving.

I hope that this year I can actually stick to the challenges that I've set myself, and trust me I've set myself a long-list for the coming 365 days.

Let's hope 2013 is a good year, and I wish you all the best.

Follow me on Twitter @Alex_Harris1991

The Christmas Blog

Its Chrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaaasssssss!

That's right. T'is the season to be jolly.

I know that it is still three weeks until Christmas but I am very much in the festive mood this year. Since the age of about 14, Christmas has become less exciting as the priorities of the day have shifted away from receiving presents.

However, this year seems to be a different kettle of fish. I attended Kingston's Christmas light switch-on for the first time in ages and I brought a hot chocolate from Starbucks the other day and it came in those lovely festive red cups.

Upon finishing university on Monday, I walked into Kingston town centre to purchase a present and card for my Dad's birthday and I decided it would be wise to begin my Christmas shopping.

I went into HMV and, after much searching, I brought Rihanna's new album for my sister. I expected the shop to be empty at 5pm but I ended up queueing for around ten minutes. And they say that we're in dire economic straits...

In addition to these exciting events, it also snowed in the UK today which really emphasised that Christmas is just around the corner.

Excitement is building, I have my MA Journalism Christmas party on Monday and a big friends of the family meal next Sunday.

Christmas should be celebrated in a jolly manner, so be merry and pleasant over the coming weeks.

Follow me on Twitter @Alex_Harris1991

The Drunken Job Offer

Thursday was a busy day for me. I handed in my first university assignment and I had to do a mock NCTJ exam in my multi-media reporting class. Once the class was over, all of us MA Journalism students did what journalists do best.

We hit the pub.

Fast-forward two hours and it was 6pm. I was chatting away after a number of pints of Fosters and then suddenly my phone started ringing.

I looked at my screen at it was an unknown. I didn't answer rationing that if it was important then the caller would leave a voice-mail.

To my surprise the caller had left a voice-mail. I popped in my headphones and listened to the message.

I took my headphones out and gasped. I pressed the call back option and I walked outside the pub.

The call lasted roughly ten minutes and I can't really much apart from the core details. The reason for that is that I was fairly tipsy at the time.

As you know from reading this blog, I am currently studying for a Master's degree in Journalism. I am paying £5,800 for this privilege.

The call I received was from confectionery giant United Biscuits. They were offering me a sales job worth £28,000 a year.

I applied for their graduate scheme last year when I was unsure what direction my life would take. I reached the penultimate stage but am now considered worthy of a sales role with their company.

In my drunken haze I said I would call back if I wanted to take the offer but I've yet to.

Essentially, I have turned down £28,000 to give a university £5,800 instead. Am I mad?

The Thought About Friendship

I have had an odd history with regards to friendships.

I was friends with everyone in my class at primary school yet I suffered a dip when it came to secondary school. Once I hit Sixth Form, I found a group of mates that I still see all the time to this very day.

University obviously opened up numerous avenues for making new friends and over my three year course, the people I hung around with completely changed. I am still in contact with numerous people from my time at Reading yet it proves more difficult to meet up with them due to geographic differences.

As I have to recently begun a Master's course, I have come into contact with a lot of people in a very short space of time.

This made me wonder about friendship. Who do I consider my true friends? What qualifies as friendship? Do people view me with a similar level of warmth and status that I view them?

This deep and philosophical thought process took place when trying to get to sleep, but at that point at 12:30 am it all made meaningful sense.

As I can't physically find out the exact thoughts of people, I guess I will never truly know.

Seeing as you seem to drop the number of friends you have once you finish university, it will be interesting to see how the next few years, when I enter the job market and maybe move into my own house, pan out.

The First Week Of My Master's Degree

It's 8:30pm on a Wednesday evening and I'm as tired as a hibernating badger. I don't think I've ever been this drained of energy.

Why? Well, I am halfway through the first week of my Journalism Master's course. In this opening week we have a quick, intensive opening module about journalistic practices.

This has involved creating a group presentation, having lectures around law and ethics, going out into Kingston and finding a news story whilst there has also been the fact that this week has involved meeting lots of new people.

It's been an interesting week and I've already slightly changed my mind about my future career direction. I've suddenly lost all interest in becoming an actual bog-standard news journalist thanks to some pretty depressing lectures about newspapers and reporting. My interest now seems to be magazines, features and online which appears to be the more fun and creative side to the industry.

I naively thought the course wouldn't be too great a challenge or too tiring but it seems like this will be a heavy, intensive year ahead.

I keep telling myself that it'll all be worth it in the long-run if I can achieve my career aims as a result but I just wish I could travel back in time and tell a younger me to take media studies and then study broadcast journalism.

However, that would have resulted in not doing things, seeing places and knowing people that I have had the luck to meet.

The Writers Block

If I haven't written anything for longer than a week then usually that is due to a legitimate, actual time-consuming reason that means I haven't been able to commit anything to paper. Well in this cause the internet, I guess...

This time it would be a case of my lying if I were to fob you off with an excuse. Really, I just feel like I've hit a block over the last couple of weeks.

It isn't that I've run out of ideas. It's just that nothing exciting has happened in the past fortnight.

Sure, I've been out. I've been to the cinema. I've been to the pub. I've met up with friends. I've carried on going to the gym. I even enrolled at university last week for my Master's degree.

The reality is that nothing has been overly exciting to write home about, share with the internet and divulge to you.

The last two weeks have flown by. It felt like only yesterday that we were waving goodbye to August and with it the summer, and subsequently ushering in September and the early evenings of autumn.

I have one last week free. One final week to do as I will before I start my new degree and, ultimately, give up the next year of my life.

I ate two bananas today.

The Next Step

Today is my Mum's birthday. I woke up early and wrote the card that I brought and placed it with the wine and Belgian chocolate that I purchased from her favourite shop, Marks and Spencer's.

I went downstairs to the living room, having prepared my best "Happy Birthday!" shout to really remind my Mum that it was her birthday. I felt it was important to remind her of that.

My Dad immediately said, "Mum's out shopping".

I made myself a cup of tea and kept the presents in their waiting place.

After finishing my morning beverage, my Mum eventually returned. I yelped "Happy Birthday!" as she walked through the door and I thrust the M&S goodies into her hand.

"Wine and chocolate! You know me so well!"

I would like to point out, my Mum isn't an alcoholic or a lady of rotund size despite what she just said. She doesn't live off wine and chocolate. That would be slightly odd.

She then proceeded to give me some bad news.

"When I was out, I stopped your direct debit."

"FUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!" I thought loudly in my head.

Let me fill you in. Just before I started university, my parent's had managed to pay off their mortgage so they decided that they would give me money every month to cover my living and personal costs instead of taking out student loans.

Their generous money had lasted me three years and I counted down every day until the next batch of monetary juice would flow into my account.

However, as my parent's are paying for my Master's degree they decided that they would cut down this allowance to the exact amount of my phone and gym contract.

Today was the day it stopped.

This news has forced me onto the next step. Whereas before, part-time work was something that I occasionally did which provided me with money to spend on little gifts for myself. Now, I will have to work to fund any fragment of social life.

I guess that is my next step of adulthood but I will now be pretty poor for the next year and I will probably be forced to shop in places such as the 99p Store and Primark.

RIP to my monthly allowance. You served me well, you will be missed.

The First Year Anniversary

Who would have thought it? This blog is officially one year old today. Happy birthday to my humble, little blog.

Seeing as this blog was created for me to express my doubts about me becoming an adult, do I think I have grown-up and matured over the past year?

I would say that I have. I feel more confident and out-going, which is always a good thing. My last year at university was great, I lived with great people and I left with a 2:1 degree which was my aim. I would also say that having gone through the university experience, I do feel more grown up. I still don't see myself as being 21, but I definitely feel confident in stating that I feel more of an adult than I did a year ago.

This blog has also given me an arena to be creative. I have fallen in love with writing and being creative over the past year, and I largely have this blog to thank for that. It has solidified in me, my ambition to become a writer and a journalist which I have begun to take steps towards. I will also start a YouTube channel soon, largely because I need to make use of my new video camera.

I will be doing a Masters course in September, I've had work experience at a national magazine, I've started writing for a couple of websites and I will be undertaking more work experience at a newspaper next week.

I am excited for the year ahead, and I hope that you stay with me and join me for the fun that will be had.

The Epiphany

I write this post at home in Kingston-upon-Thames having left university yesterday.

Sure, I am going back for results day, summer ball and graduation but having packed away the vast majority of my stuff and then saying goodbye to my house-mate, Nick, who I won't see for a few weeks, it felt like the end-of-an-era.

I now have an entire summer to re-focus my life and orientate myself back to life at home. I always thought that by doing my Master's that I'd be happy. Don't get me wrong, I really am looking forward to the course and I would love to write for a living but doubts are beginning to creep.

It all boils down to money.

In the short-term, journalism doesn't pay well. I can look forward to a starting salary of £15,000 which quite frankly isn't very good. This means that I will be living with my parents for at least two to three years. After three years of living away from home, I'm not sure I will enjoy living back at home for an extended period.

In the long-term, I want to live the dream. I want a big house and land in a nice village somewhere in the country. I want to have friendly, middle-class neighbours who I will go to the local pub for a few drinks with. The looming question is whether journalism would fund that? It is possible but I'd need a lot of luck and skill.

This has led me to an epiphany though. I really need to go after opportunities and succeed. Basically, I need to try harder.

YOLO, right?

The Blog With 30 Facts About Me

It occurred to me last night, whilst laying in bed, that you don't know too much about me. Sure you can see my little profile picture, you can read the description caption whilst I give you little snippets about my life, but surely it'll be more fun for you to read my blog if you knew more about me.

So, here's a chronological list of facts about me ranging the interesting to the bizarre.

1) I live in Kingston-upon-Thames with my parents and two sisters.

2) I go to Reading University where I study Politics and International Relations.

3) I am 6ft 1" tall.

4) I am right-handed.

5) I did A Levels in Business Studies, English Literature and Sociology.

6) I watch a lot of television. My favourite shows are: Eastenders, Doctor Who and Made in Chelsea.

7) Politically, I support the Liberal Democrats... still.

8) I support Fulham FC.

9) My favourite Fulham player is Clint Dempsey.

10) I love music. My favourite bands/artists are: Bloc Party, We Are Scientists, Get People and Marina and the Diamonds.

11) I do love chart music as well. I am quite embarrassed to admit that I love this weeks #1 song, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen.

12) I am going to study for a Masters degree in Journalism starting in September.

13) I love steak. Hence, I could never be vegetarian.

14) Coca-Cola is the greatest drink ever, in my opinion.

15) I'd love to be a writer in the future. If I could, then it'd be a dream to write Danny Wallace-style books.

16) I played Ultimate Frisbee for about 8 weeks at university. In a surprising turn of events, I found out that it's a really tough sport.

17) My favourite colour is red.

18) My favourite clothing brands are: Hollister, Topman and Superdry. You can call me a douche for that.

19) My favourite film of all time is Hotel Rwanda. I also love Cool Runnings and the Mr Bean movie.

20) I love XFM. It's a great radio station.

21) I think BBC3 is a criminally underrated TV channel.

22) I just spelt underrated wrong and had to correct it. I'm not as clever as I think.

23)  I'd love to go travelling. So far, I've only been to Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Cyprus.

24) I think a pub quiz is the greatest thing ever.

25) I really want to live in Brighton at some point in my life.

26) My mobile phone is an iPhone 4S.

27) I have a really small bedroom. It is literally about the width and length of Peter Crouch.

28) I once broke my arm in a drunken incident. I ended up requiring surgery which was a fun experience.

29) I am going to turn 21 soon. It frightens me how old I am getting.

30) I apparently can't think of any more facts about myself.

Thanks for reading and please follow/subscribe my blog. It really would mean a lot to me.

Follow me on Twitter @Alex_Harris1991

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