Over the last three months, I have experienced a huge learning curve from being a college student to a university undergraduate/ aspiring sport journalist. I feel my skills and knowledge of the industry has developed and increased significantly over this time. It has been challenging at times, but I feel I have tackled everything in the right way which benefits me.

Something that certainly hit me with a shock at the start of the term was the independence. In school and college, I was always supported and guided on when doing tasks but at university it was different, and most things was relied upon myself. Despite initially not like this way of learning, I soon started to warm to it and now I feel I have confidence with my independence. As my independent working increases day after day it helps me in my pursuit of becoming a sports journalist in the future.

Another thing I have learnt during the opening term is how important it is to ask questions. In any situation whether it will be conducting an interview or asking for help, it is always useful and vital to ask questions. I began to realise this after a few tasks and ever since, my work has improved significantly. With some of the assignments set, I have asked my lecturers a lot of questions and by doing this it helped me go into those assignments with more confidence.

Whilst at the sport park, I learnt that is important that you are quick when writing up match reports. Listening to the second and third-years’ experience, they said they are now required to have completed a match report by the full-time whistle. I was initially taken aback from this, but soon realised that this is an industry requirement and they expect nothing less. Every week whilst at the sport park, I now try and time myself to see how long I take to write a match report and then compare the times each week to see if I am improving in terms of my speed. I believe by the end of the year, I will be at a stage where I could write a full match report by the full time whistle.

Finally, one of the most important things I have learnt since starting this course is how important contacts are.  From all the guest speakers we have had I noticed that they have a huge contact book, and this is what has made them successful. As I grow and develop further on this course, I will make sure I take note of every important figure to my contacts as they may be incredibly important for me in my future career.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed the first three months of this course. I am delighted I have chosen this course as I feel I have a great chance in getting into the place I want to be in the future. I have developed great friendships already and this has helped me settle in very well. There is still a long way to go on this course which means there is a lot more to learn and a lot more challenges, but I am confident in my ability and feel I can progress and become successful.