Jennysha's job log: 2

The story so far… Jennysha graduated two years ago, and it was a while before she figured out what she wanted to do. She is now looking for ways into publishing.

Finding a voice

For some reason, I found writing this second blog very hard. It wasn’t that I couldn’t think of what to write, but that I had so much that I wanted to write. I kept thinking in my head of ways of writing it, but, like now, when I tried to get it down on paper, the words either disappeared from my memory or what I wrote sounded so mediocre and pointless in comparison to what I thought of writing. So I guess now that that’s clear, I can get on with telling you about some of those things that I wanted to write about.

The day that I submitted my first blog, I was surfing the net, in particular looking at a blog I really like: girl with a kaléidoscope. I discovered it some months ago via teenvogue.com; a favourite of my younger sisters. The site features a ‘blogger of the moment’ and due to the nature of Teen Vogue as a publication, these bloggers’ blogs bear some sort of relation to fashion or beauty or art. The one that I mentioned liking is one of the first actual blogs I ever looked at and with her cool photographs and quirky anecdotes, she actually became an inspiration and made me feel like creating my own blog or at least set me off daydreaming about how great it would be to have my photos in print someday. In fact, looking at her blog started a chain reaction. I seemed to go blogging mad. I was consulting search engines and online encyclopaedias for other blogs, definitions and origins of this online means of writing. I found that the blogging community, which I now belong to, thanks to prospects.ac.uk, is called the ‘blogosphere’. I now have a list of favourite blogs which I check on a regular basis too. Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk is one of these blogs. She is a businesswoman, writing under this pseudonym about careers and work-related issues. She is very honest and makes a lot of sense and I would definitely recommend you to check it out.

Excitement in the library

Another thing which happened since writing my first entry is that I have now started my job at the library! I am so excited, like you would not believe. Anyone that knows me would understand how much of a big deal this is to me. It is indeed a childhood dream and if you want me to share something very personal, and, to be frank, quite sad (in the loser sense), here goes. When I was a child, my sisters and I would play ‘libraries’ (like that game even exists!). My mum bought us a proper stamp and inkpad, and, using one of my dad’s tools which looked like the pen that the libraries used to use to scan the barcodes in the books, we issued and discharged our own little library of books to one another! It was so much fun. Honest. So I’ve been working at the library for a couple of weeks now. Along with my other part-time job at a bookstore, I pretty much clock-in the hours of a full-time job, except I work over seven days, not five. It’s actually not as bad as it sounds. Besides, after that nasty bout of unemployment, like my gran told me to do, I am indeed going to work as much as I sat at home doing nothing!

Go for it

Gladly, I have been getting on well with the staff at the library and everyone has been welcoming and friendly, a bit like when I worked in Leicester. The bookstore, on the other hand, is another story - but I’ll delve into that during another blog! As I work Sundays at the library, I had the privilege of meeting even more staff - some that even the people who work during the week have never met before. It was a really nice shift and whilst battling with a mess of books in the children’s section, I got chatting to another library assistant. I began to think maybe I am putting all my eggs into one basket and what if I find out later on during an internship or a work experience programme, that publishing isn’t for me? Well, that’s the risk I’m willing to take and the risk that I think is necessary. After all, you’ll never know unless you try. Humans are complex beings - we don’t just do/think/live one thing, like we may be programmed to do when it comes to careers. There are many facets to us and the way we think and what we want and what we desire and what we do. Yes I may officially have a ‘plan’, but who’s to say that that plan will work and if it doesn’t, there must be a reason why. You have to just go for it and figure it out when it does/doesn’t happen. It’s the only way you can truly live. Going for something you really want and being rejected is better than rejecting yourself and not giving yourself a chance in the first place to see what you could actually be more than capable of being.

Read my first job log

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