Like any other 20 year old, the biggest interest in my life is my friends, university and work. I live in the little bubble of Jessica and don’t pay a lot of attention to much else thats going on in the world.
However, I work eight hours a week in a pharmacy where I’ve had my eyes opened to the lives of drug addicts who give me insight into their lives daily.
Before working there I hadn’t thought about drug addicts and how they live. The needle exchange and methadone programmes opened my eyes to another part of society . It felt really good to learn and form an opinion on people that are often looked down upon. I want to burst the little bubble that I live in and learn more about life.
In 2002 Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were murdered by Ian Huntley. At the age of 13 this was the very first news story that I became aware of. Before then I knew that things happened around the world but these girls were so close to my own age that I became obsessed with someone finding them.
I had was constantly checking around myself to make sure no one was following me and I was checking the newspapers and any form of media I could get my hands on while I was on a family holiday. I can’t remember anything from that holiday other than the panic I felt.
Since then I have slowly become more aware of big news stories but have never really thought about how I would feel in that situation.
Back when I was 13 I had long blonde hair and a chubby faced smile. A lot of people when I returned to school after that summer said that I resembled Holly Wells. The fear hit me once again as I thought that someone might target me next.
Ian Huntley was later charged with perverting the court of justice and murder of the two girls. After this happened I forgot about the story until I was reminded about that holiday.
I was brought up by my mother and father who never really educated me on topics of politics or taught me a lot about the history of different things around the world. I learnt the basics at school and just trundled through life being unaware of what was going on around me until I was affected by that news story.
I’d never looked at pieces of news and wondered how I would feel in that situation, or how that situation could effect the people in the surrounding culture. At the age of 11 two planes hit the twin towers causing approximately 2,792 deaths. I knew that America had gone to war but I didn’t understand why, in all honesty I still don’t really understand why today.
“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can –there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.” Sarah Caldwell
I take inspiration from the quote above and am now going to adopt it as my mantra.
As a 20 year old female studying journalism at university and working on a pharmacy I want to learn more about the world. I want to understand politics for the first time and know that who I’m voting for is going to be the right person for the job.
I want to stop sitting in coffee shops and looking puzzled as I listen to other people debate the pro’s and con’s of Barack Obama. I don’t want to just be another clueless 20 something who doesn’t understand whats going on around them.
In this blog I will chronicle by quest to understand more about life!
Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading my blog as much as I do writing it.
Jessica
No comments:
Post a Comment