Hi.
We’ve briefly met before – I hope.
If not, don’t worry! My name is Reiham Amin, and I sometimes write about lessons that I have learnt in my life that I hope you can relate to. If you haven’t read my last life rant titled, ‘Confessions of a final year student’, then I highly recommend you have a read of that before you delve into this entry.
I am no longer a final year student, I guess. I finished university, I finished my exams, and I now anxiously anticipate my final year grades and graduation day. Whilst I live in this state of worry, I am working my first ever big girl job.
Did I manifest this? Are you guys the reason I am now a journo babe? Whatever blessing that caused me to land this role, I am now working as a journalist. I told you I was made to be a journalist.
I love it, I think. Has it been everything that I have ever imagined? Yes?
I think it’s all just fairly new to me so I can’t give you a definite answer. I think this industry is so diverse with different departments and roles that I feel overwhelmed – in a good way. I am learning so much and I am meeting people who I have looked up to for months. This job feels like a literal dream (as cliché as that sounds).
However, working as a journalist in this short amount of time has taught me a lot about my character, things that I think every person working a 9-5, living a student life or pursuing their own business should know.
It’s true, you are a product of your own environment.
Whilst at my big girl job, I was working with a team who clearly did not want me there, at least I felt like that. I knew if I stayed in that team any longer, I would find myself hating this job, meaning hating the one thing I have always dreamt of being. Don’t get me wrong, I gave it a good go, but there is only so much of my time and energy I can pour in a place where it felt like it wasn’t wanted. So, I left.
I could’ve stayed, I could’ve gotten comfortable and hoped things only got better, but I knew the minute hope was involved – it was over. I refuse to be a product of that environment, I refuse to let that one experience, that one team taint this dream that I am living. You are in control of your life and if you don’t like something do something about it. Just because society makes us feel like we should be conforming and do as we’re told, doesn’t mean we should.
Given circumstances and our own little life problems, I can understand that it may not be that easy to just get up and leave. If that is the case, do something you love. Find time to do something you absolutely love on the side, think about how you can turn that love into an income and then before you know it, you’re blooming into a product of love instead of hate.
Know your worth inside and outside the workplace.
Just because you are a fresh graduate doesn’t mean people can walk all over you. I think it’s easy for people to undermine and not appreciate the skills and talent that young people have to offer just because of your age – which is ridiculous. The world around us is constantly changing and so are we as people. Young people are the voices for the world.
Now what I’m about to say is going to sound super cringe and cliché, but self-love and self-understanding is so important. If you don’t have an awareness of yourself and how much you should love, respect and nurture your soul, you will live a life of being a footnote. Yes – I did just make a One Day reference, sue me!
You need to be the whole chapter, the main character, the protagonist in YOUR life. I have lived my life this way and I can honestly say it is the reason that I have been able to achieve everything that I have prayed for. What side character gets the recognition or the opportunities?
Don’t let anyone inside or outside the workplace undervalue your intelligence. If you know and understand the unique power that you hold, they will start to see you differently.
Check in with yourself and your loved ones regularly.
When I was at university, I used to think that my working friends were lying about how busy they were. What do you mean you don’t have time? There is always time. Unfortunately, because of this mentality, I ended up falling out or arguing with a lot of my friends.
But it’s true. You really don’t have time.
I started therapy in my final months of university, and I actively engaged with my therapist, I used to feel a lot. Recently, I have been missing my therapist calls, and falling behind in my modules because I have just been so busy with work. It was only until the other day where I answered my therapist's call and we finally got a call scheduled for a future date. Can I be honest? I don’t know what to say to her.
I have been so occupied with work and because of the nature of my work, I am constantly thinking about work when I get home or about potential stories that I can pitch for the next day. I come home and I get ready for bed, I have something quick to eat, then I force myself to sleep otherwise I know I will regret the late night tomorrow morning. I honestly don’t have time to even think about how I feel. I genuinely feel numb.
This made me reflect on my family and loved ones who work extremely hard because they have too; friends who have graduated and are working their big girl and boy jobs who no longer have time to text back, the extroverted souls in my life who are slowly merging into an unconscious being. I sat down with these thoughts and decided to give myself and others grace, because nobody knows what we go through. Check in with yourself more, talk to yourself, talk to your family and friends. I know with the limited time we have to ourselves that might be hard, but it’s because of that limited time, we must try to do better.
Written By Reiham Amin
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