Blog 4

As previously mentioned in the blog post above, I have come to realise, rather late, that this area of work is not one that I wish to do as a profession. In all honesty, this has caused my mental health to slowly spiral downwards to a level where I am not maximising my abilities as a sports journalism student or taking the opportunities that the course has presented to me. Due to the fact that I came to this realisation midway through my final year of studies, I realised also that it would be foolish to exit the course with only a few months remaining, which is why I decided to try to finish the course in order to get something useful out of the last three years. However, without realising it, I have also not helped myself due to the fact I have not sought out help in getting through the course with the mindset which I have. Speaking to someone regularly throughout the year could have allowed me to reduce my stress levels, remain focused, and carry out the work to the best of my ability by keeping myself organised, which would have resulted in more placement hours being completed and other general work being completed to a higher standard. I think I would have been less hesitant to take opportunities such as reporting for Prost, had I sought out the guidance and help which I needed in retrospect. If I was to do this year again, I would have attempted to seek out the relevant help in order to remain on the right track of staying focused and motivated, which would have allowed me to be proactive in meeting placement requirements. I say this not to self-deprecate, or to criticise the course itself, but instead to evaluate and analyse my own personal shortcomings and mistakes with how I handled myself, regardless of how I may have felt about the sports journalism industry as a whole.