Why I Chose Journalism: My Journey into Storytelling
School destroyed my imagination.
Everything I wrote or drew had to fit a guide. There were rules in every creative element, “your story has to be set out like this”, “It can’t be about that”, “You need to follow this structure”, “The only thing that matters is that you get an A”. Yet the lesson was titled “Creative writing”.
The Oxford dictionary definition of school is “an institution for educating children”. The definiton of education is “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction”. The definition of learning is “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught”.
The only skill I gained from school was how to pass an exam.
School is a social construct that engineers everyone to learn the same, think the same and act the same. There’s only one way to do things, and only one category for everyone. And for many individuals, including myself, they don’t fit into that.
I’ve always had a passion for art in all forms, but specifically writing. But ironically, English and art were my least favourite subjects at school.
After my GCSE exams were finished, and I was finally free from school, I felt lost. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, I only knew what I didn’t want, which was to be told what to do.
I made the decision to go to college, because that’s what everyone else was doing and it seemed like it was the only option (once again, the education providing system did not provide education).
Three months in, and I despised it. I still had no clear vision what I wanted to do, I just knew I was not happy in college.
There was a running joke in my family, that I was going to become a hippie and live in a camper van, floating through life, but my stepdad had his bets placed on me becoming a journalist.
I had toyed around with the idea before, but never took it seriously, as I didn’t think I could do it without college.
One day, I had just had enough. I knew I didnt want to stay in college, and I loved writing, so I thought why not?
I spent two weeks searching for apprenticeships, internships, qualifications without A-levels, anything I could find. And then I found a diploma with the NCTJ. No A-levels, work from home, roughly two years, and freedom. So I enrolled.
A month in, and it’s the best decision I could have made. Scraping through school, coming out with barely 5 GCSES, dropping out of college, and it all worked out in the end.
My creativity is no longer compressed, im no longer locked in a classroom being talked at and I can finally do what I want to do, which is write.
