"Dear Shruti,
I am very pleased to report you passed the Reporting exam with 64% - joint first with someone else in your group. You are now a NCTJ Gold Standard journo. I am very happy for you!"
Just reading those words - "you are now an NCTJ Gold Standard journo" - caused me to burst into tears. Tears of happiness, of pure, unadulterated joy. For five intense months of hard work finally, finally came to fruition with those eight words (incidentally, 8 is my lucky number!)
A huge thanks to the NCTJ's Journalism Diversity Fund for funding my studies - without the bursary from them, I wouldn't have managed to get on the course never mind pass it! So if you're a budding hack from a diverse background, apply, apply, apply! It may be the best thing you do to make your dream come true.
It took months of studying, sometimes screaming in frustration at my lack of understanding of Public Affairs or not getting beyond the stubborn 80wpm shorthand - but I finally got there with those golden words (pun fully intended).
My proudest grade - 64% in news reporting, joint highest score in my group with another extremely talented journalist - for an exam that is so notoriously difficult to pass, I had it in my head that I would have to retake it at least once if not more times in order to get the desired 50% or above pass mark for the Gold Standard diploma.
If in September you had told me that today I would be sitting here with a Gold Standard diploma (theoretically) in my hands, I would have laughed you out of the room. There were a few times on the course that I was tempted to sack it all in and go back to PR, to a safe, secure job where I wouldn't have to worry about the stress of exams and the like.
Never have I been so glad to have stuck at it. Even when I felt at my lowest, I found the strength (mainly through my ever supportive husband, my rock) to carry on. Because, as he kept reminding me, getting the diploma would mean I would be one step closer to achieving a dream that I've had since I was 12-years-old.
And now I am. One step closer. All I need is the right job and the day will come when I can, finally, call myself a journalist.
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a journalist."
I can't wait!
I am very pleased to report you passed the Reporting exam with 64% - joint first with someone else in your group. You are now a NCTJ Gold Standard journo. I am very happy for you!"
Just reading those words - "you are now an NCTJ Gold Standard journo" - caused me to burst into tears. Tears of happiness, of pure, unadulterated joy. For five intense months of hard work finally, finally came to fruition with those eight words (incidentally, 8 is my lucky number!)
A huge thanks to the NCTJ's Journalism Diversity Fund for funding my studies - without the bursary from them, I wouldn't have managed to get on the course never mind pass it! So if you're a budding hack from a diverse background, apply, apply, apply! It may be the best thing you do to make your dream come true.
It took months of studying, sometimes screaming in frustration at my lack of understanding of Public Affairs or not getting beyond the stubborn 80wpm shorthand - but I finally got there with those golden words (pun fully intended).
My proudest grade - 64% in news reporting, joint highest score in my group with another extremely talented journalist - for an exam that is so notoriously difficult to pass, I had it in my head that I would have to retake it at least once if not more times in order to get the desired 50% or above pass mark for the Gold Standard diploma.
If in September you had told me that today I would be sitting here with a Gold Standard diploma (theoretically) in my hands, I would have laughed you out of the room. There were a few times on the course that I was tempted to sack it all in and go back to PR, to a safe, secure job where I wouldn't have to worry about the stress of exams and the like.
Never have I been so glad to have stuck at it. Even when I felt at my lowest, I found the strength (mainly through my ever supportive husband, my rock) to carry on. Because, as he kept reminding me, getting the diploma would mean I would be one step closer to achieving a dream that I've had since I was 12-years-old.
And now I am. One step closer. All I need is the right job and the day will come when I can, finally, call myself a journalist.
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a journalist."
I can't wait!
