I need to create a portfolio for university, and writing a blog seems like a good starting point. I am studying Broadcast and Digital journalism at the University of West London. I am doing the second year, or Level 5, in the UK academic system. They – the lecturers and the Career services – keep reminding me that I need to develop a portfolio that demonstrates my skills and my familiarity with different tools. I think that starting to write a blog will help me to shake up my brain and get out all the ideas that I can put in a portfolio.

I have been in university for three years, including the Foundation year, and I feel I have lost my inspiration, curiosity and spark. Before I started university, I wrote extensively about vegan baking and cooking. I was passionate about reading many magazines about travel, coffee, fashion, restaurants, local businesses and food. I didn’t realise I had lost the interest until I read the interview with Paul Mescal in the ES magazine. He shared some tips to stay calm and focus in the creative industries – I might share it with you in a later post, or you could google the article – and I thought, ‘Wow! I should do exactly what he suggests and keep my cool in my journalism journey. My second thought was, ‘it is amazing that a magazine article helps others to feel inspired.’ and it was at that moment that it hit me. I remember that every Thursday after work or during my lunch break, I used to go to the Oxford Circus tube station and grab a copy of the ES Magazine, going through the pages until I found Grace Dent’s restaurant reviews and the very last section of the magazine’ My London’.

It might seem that university stole my spark for reading and writing, but it was an excruciating love breakup, my long-time neglected mental health and the restrictions of the lockdown that confabulated to dim my eagerness for reading. During the COVID lockdowns, I had a lot of time to read wellbeing books recommended by my therapists. I recommend the book ‘Attached’ by Amir Levine. That book helped me overcome the initial part of the breakup and understand myself better as a lover. I aim to avoid writing about mental health on this blog because it is hard to draw a healthy boundary between personal mental health and mental health as a practice when I am not a trained mental health professional. I might drop a few thoughts on wellbeing when I am sure I am not trauma-dumping you.

I think that I am ready to go back to the online spotlight through my writing and my thoughts. I gained a lot of confidence after doing the module ‘Law for Journalists’. I learnt the things that are and are not allowed in the UK, and how journalists can avoid getting into legal disputes – expect a future blog entry about the basics of UK law that a junior journalist should contemplate. We also did an exam for this module, and I am happy to share that I got a 63 over 75. Is that 84%? I am very pleased with the mark. I will keep as a treasure the notes that I took for this module. The notes will make me feel safe and confident. Hopefully, my writing in this blog will be respectful and critical without breaching my legal responsibilities as a journalist.

Sharing my thoughts on a regular basis will help me to keep alive the writing and analysis skills that I am getting from my course and to go back to the feedback that I have gotten from my lecturers. In the second year of the course, I learnt two things that boosted my confidence in writing. The first one is to give a direct answer to a direct question – a question is the only thing you get from your lecturer before being asked to write a 3000 words essay. And the second thing is to not be afraid of sharing my honest opinion as long as I respect the regulations of the UK. So far, my writing experience involves the toppling of the Edwards Colston Statue, the Northern Ireland Protocol (or Windsor Framework), the Staffordshire Hospital Scandal, the Facebook Files Leak, Poland and the EU Law, and others. All these topics require great analytical skills, but I intend to write about lighter topics as well.

English is my third language, and I want to make sure that I keep sharpening my writing skills at every single opportunity that I have. The journalism industry is very competitive, and I want to be mentally fit for it once I finish my university course. One of my lecturers told me, ‘Good writing might not be essential in other courses, but it has been perfect in journalism’. Writing a blog will help me to go over and over my writing skills, to search the different meanings of a word -one of my passions-, to approach sensitive topics in different ways, adapt my writing to the sentiment of an audience and revisit the different resources about grammar that I have collected over my course.

I also want to connect with journalists of all levels, get their feedback, collaborate and build a network. Writing and storytelling are creative activities that I enjoy the most when I bounce ideas off others. I am happy to meet with other people to go out and take pictures, go to restaurants, and events of all sorts, and travel with a journalistic purpose. I am always open to learning something new from a fellow journalist. The idea is to share my thoughts on social media, create an audience, connect with other professionals, develop a portfolio and shape my voice as a journalist.

I have mentioned very good reasons to write a blog. I will share with you my experience as a student of Broadcast and Digital journalism in London. My passion for food and veganism will make an appearance every now and then. A diversity of topics will flow on the pages of my blog, bringing different perspectives from politics, arts, social events, technology and finances. Welcome to the beginning of the exciting journey of a junior journalist.