My new title’s redemption

Two blogs in one hour? Absolute lunacy but it is justified. I promise.

As well as (finally) sending off my passport to the Americans so they can put a sticker on one of the pages and then send it back to me I had some rather good news yesterday.

Ladies and gentlemen, as of yesterday in certain contexts and circumstances I shall be known as the Travel Editor of Concrete- the union’s ‘award-winning’ newspaper. Big deal right? Well, in some respects for me it is. Travel writing is something I want to get into as a career and to be editor of the section that deals with travel writing is pretty cool. Saying that I’ve only actually had two articles published in the newspaper and I only joined it on January. BIG error in my part. Having done a fair bit of journalism before uni, writing for the newspaper is something I probably should have done since first year, but in truth I avoided it for the first half of my time at uni.

Why?

No reason really. Simply a case of stupidly ignoring it at every Socmart. I just couldn’t be motivated to do something that I did a lot during my two years at college. I wanted to do different things (like Lacrosse. Yeah exactly- different huh), but eventually in January I caved in and signed up. It was really a decision on the fact that I could use it to promote BUNAC. My first piece, detailing my time at camp last summer, went straight to the main article space and I found time afterwards to write a small piece on Savannah- a beautiful city that I fell in love with when I visited for a mere 4 hours.

Now, six months later, I am editor of the section. I feel that my ignorance in my first year and a half at uni is forgotten and I can’t wait to get on with transforming the section into the best part of the newspaper. In a way, getting this role means that I can forgive myself for not joining Concrete earlier. I know through my work with BUNAC that students are passionate about travel (we even have a travel shop- although they see BUNAC and I as a competitor to them sadly) and I want to create a section where their travel stories, tips and opinions are heard.

It’s not about promoting BUNAC (I think they might be a bit suspicious if every article is about BUNAC!), it’s about creating a platform for students to spill their top tips for Buenos Aires, argue the benefits of RTW tickets and to fill up their word limit with ‘This one time, at band camp…’ stories.