Published – Experiencing Kiwiland

When I started this blog, I secretly harboured dreams of becoming a writer and having my work published.

I thought, “Hey, maybe blogging will lead to something bigger, like extras in a movie who end up becoming lead actors, or Mariah Carey progressing from backup singer to full fledged Grammy winner”. I fantasised that someday, I’d have a job worth waking up to.

Well, here I am. I finally got what I’ve been dreaming about  🙂 Actually, not entirely, since its not a 9-5 job, but its still close enough.

My most recent article – about my working holiday experience that didn’t take me very long to write as I was bursting to spill, was published in The Star’s youth column and I was given full page, unlike the previous ones which were just 3/4.

Experiencing Kiwiland – The Star_Youth_Experiencing Kiwiland_311112

Although its my fourth published article, there’s still a sense of surrealism to it.

Its hard to believe that you can make money while traveling. Its hard to believe that you can make money doing what you love and keep being asked to do it. What’s hardest to believe is that, not too long ago, I was told my writing wasn’t good enough. After working for two of the most horrible bosses back-to-back, one of whom told me my writing was rubbish, the other of whom chucked my work aside refusing to even acknowledge my work, it was hard to climb back up again and do what I believed in.

Amidst all the nastiness, there were good people whom I am grateful to. There was my General Manager at the PR agency, whose motto in life was “”Perseverance is key”. When my drafts were being rejected over and over again, and I was edging closer and closer to the deadline, without any draft I could use, she was the only one who kept telling me to persevere, and that it wasn’t my fault that the CEO didn’t like my drafts. I remember one particular advertorial I had to write. He rejected all 6 of my advertorial drafts, and called me to his office, asking why I had ‘copied’ his way of writing. It turns out the rejection was his way of teaching. Eventually, after the six rejections, he accepted the first draft I had written and we used that for the shampoo advertorial. The GM said he just wanted to see how many ways I could start a story.

The other psychotic boss I had would refuse to entertain any of my drafts. I would work through midnights, sitting at the office, finishing as much as I could, and send her as many as I could (as per her request). I’d also slave through weekends, editing and writing for the 35 page newsletter that I was working on alone, that was due in 2 weeks. She would refuse to read it, until we got to the design agency at 2am. When we got there, she whipped out her red marker and starter highlighting and scribbling, circling and screaming at me. It was a hard lesson, but I eventually realised and learnt that it wasn’t my fault she had poor time management.

Helping out – The Star_Youth_volunteering_301111

I also had an old friend, who used to be my lecturer in uni. She was one of the few people who encouraged me to keep writing. She made me realise that just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, writing is the same : you need to continuously write to be a good writer.

So, as you can guess, my next article for The Star will be about how bad, sad, hard, tough, rough experiences make you a better person and leads you to wonderful things in life. After all, the saying “every cloud has a silver lining” wasn’t coined without a reason.