Maybe I'll Get Famous

By Ayanda Mhlanga
I like writing stories, the made up type that don’t need much verification that make the reader want to smile, or cry or jump up in excitement. I do not see how this would pose too much of a problem if I am to become a journalist; these days it seems I would only have to reconstruct press releases, wait for people to phone in and send a few emails to survive in this line of profession, I’ve learnt that you need not leave the office in the construction of a newspaper except perhaps to get the pretty pictures that will shock the consumers into purchasing that particular newspaper, for the most part I could probably sit by the phone and write stories that push unfortunate ideologies all day.

Now that’s precisely my problem with the system, it is warped. I feel there is so much left unsaid, and a few too many things left unseen, no one sees the moonwalking bear. I used to be optimistic or naive and think I, or any person really, had the power to change it all, but as the days go on, the course (Journalism 1) progresses, and my years grow nearer to their closing I tend to lose hope; now I’d just be happy if everyone was aware of what’s going on and trying to make their own decisions.

I, myself, am really keen on feature journalism because it allows one to dig a bit deeper and express a bit more love, features are a bit more colourful and a lot more fun, and I also feel it is a lot less cutthroat than hard news; I struggle with cutthroat. I also enjoy magazine journalism, but not the fluffy ‘how-to’ side, I like interesting literature that challenges the reader, the piece of literature that challenges me most would have to be my Bible and I don’t plan to match that. Just something to brighten up someone’s day or make them think about aspects of life a bit more, things that record life and in turn make life a bit more interesting.
The wonderful ladies who are co-authoring this blog with me seem to be on round about the same page as me on this, and seem really excited about changing perspectives and questioning the status quo, which is great because we are young and are hence allowed to have foolish ambitions and sometimes goals set by such ambitions are met and sometimes they aren’t, but a girl can dream.

I’m talking about when one doesn’t merely want to survive in the journalism profession, but to shine. And maybe I’ll get famous as the girl who dared to change the system, or maybe I won’t.