Introduction

My previous blogging experiences have been varied or patchy at best. I had to keep an online record during my Media Studies A-Level and have a blog for each of the two coursework projects. The second was far more successful than my first attempt, and is still being used as an example as an A grade blog, so can’t have been a bad attempt. Other than that, I also kept an account of the world’s vendetta against me by listing, often in huge exaggeration, everything that happened to me or I came across that wound me up.

I was recently asked if I would be happy for this blog to represent me as a writer, and I was a bit stuck. It was certainly written using correct spelling and grammar and represented my respect for the English language, and also represented me as a persuasive and creative writer as I explained my woes in great detail, usually with a humorous tinting. On the other hand though, it showed a tendency to ignore the good and sometimes truthful in my search for sensationalist entertainment, a tendency that I would rather not share with some of our regularly criticised tabloids. So here it is; a new start, and a line drawn.

This blog will hopefully uphold a lot of my morals surrounding life and also uphold the ethics that are frequently ignored by those that have given our press a bad name. As well as that it will offer me the chance to practice the skills required to be a sports writer in a smaller, but equally as public environment, as those currently at the top of the profession. It will also be my account of actions taken towards a career after my university studies, any key decisions or paths, and help me make the ultimate decision between the journalistic route, and my other option, teaching my subject of choice, History.

History was by no means my favourite subject for the most part of my school education. It was a non-entity at primary school, as sticking pictures of Henry VIII’s wives into an exercise book neither challenged nor interested me. I couldn’t tell you what subjects I studied in year 7 or 8 either, once I had joined my secondary school, but in year 9 my immediate future started to become mapped out for me. The enthusiasm of my teacher that year led me to taking the subject at GCSE and my next teacher, equally as proficient, and equally as engrossed in his subject made the decision to take it at A-Level just as easy, and from then it was my first choice subject at university too. A lot of the enthusiasm and passion for certain areas of modern history in particular has rubbed off from the teachers I have learnt from, and for a while now I have had a growing inclination that I would like to share my enthusiasm with groups of young people too.
So that is the basis for this blog, and the starting point of this journey.

My blind determination and bloody-mindedness mean I won’t accept anything but my first choice career, but what my first and ultimately decisive choice will be is still not clear, but hopefully that won’t be the case when I finish my degree in June 2013.