Taking stock and looking forward at the six-month mark

Having recently completed six months since I started working at The National, I took some time to reflect upon the half year I have spent training in the newsroom. During my initial three months I was covering daily news and exhibitions, writing court stories, and speaking to young people about some of the social issues that concern them in the community. I then spent the next three months in the Motoring section where I had to find interesting stories about cars and motors.

That proved to be extremely hard, as my knowledge of cars was not as I had expected. There was a lot more for me to learn, and a few months were certainly not enough. I discovered I am not very good at writing about cars, even though they are my obsession.

Next week, I will be training in a totally different environment: Multimedia. Seeing the producers at work is easy, having to do their job with little knowledge of the field will not be.

This is, I think, one of the joys of being a journalist. There are many fields I can work in, and even though I am a writer, trying to produce a video will give me a new perspective. I will be able to do practice journalism through a different medium, and discover the challenges of being a multimedia producer. While reporting on certain stories, I have asked the multimedia team to produce a video to accompany the written article and I was always fascinated by the process of film making. While reporters enjoy long detailed answers to add the necessary information to the piece, producers use short video clips to convey the story. Soon enough, I will be able to do the same.

In six months, I have come across many people who have stories that need to be told. I have met many other journalists who were able to provide me with advice to keep me going and excelling in this field. Being a journalist is new in my family, and my career surprised family members as well as friends are always curious to know what it is that I do and how I do it.  They always end up asking, "Do you enjoy it?". The answer always is "Of course!". This job adds to the excitement of my every day life.  I meet and interview new people on a daily basis, and the people are usually of different nationalities, ages, and backgrounds, which always adds to my perspective. I get to understand people's mentalities and the way they think, and why they think or behave in a certain way. I go to many places, including exhibitions, shops and grocery stores, where I also get more information on many issues that are present in society.

Despite the stress and the many assignments that I am asked to do, I still enjoy this job very much. And with six more months ahead of my training, I can't help but think what the future will hold and what else I will be able to learn. I have to keep in mind that I still have many skills to learn, and I'm hoping spending a few months shooting videos and producing them will give me a new set of creative skills that will be helpful in the future.