So me being a University of Winchester student I now have four weeks off to kill, striking a rut of boredom whilst I long for the day in late April when the final semester of the Academic year unfolds yet again. It’s the Easter break, but being a student journalist in the city has made me hungry to be active and to work.

That said, you’re probably thinking all students are the same and spend their borrowed loans and hours drinking away into the sunset and 99% of that is more than true, but what I’ve learnt in my second university year is that there’s no rest for the wicked as a journalist, but I love this fact.

Too often I see it every day, people I know seem to be throwing money away in a time where as we know, money is everything. I believe learning and higher education is a one-off chance to catch a train which will not wait around forever for you, and maybe this is just my stance but it’s disheartening when some students appear unfocused, de-motivated and more committed to hauling up extra hours spent in bed nursing a hangover then hitting the crux of the issue face on, their degree. If anything, I am a realist with a dedicated attitude and this is what I want to communicate in my blog, with this fantastic opportunity to produce content for one of Hampshire’s historical newspapers.

Being a journalist student has prepared me for non-stop hard graft, but the experience that comes with long hours, thinking on the spot, lugging a camera kit around and contacting people certainly is time consuming but a rewarding practice nonetheless. The close proximity and amalgamation of services, businesses, retail outlets, schools, colleges and two high profile local councils brings home Winchester’s contemporary quirkiness, making the lengths of University ‘vacations’ as it is namedropped, frustrating to me because it breaks up the rhythmic orchestra of learning.

Nationally all further education term lengths remain roughly the same, but it can be disappointing to have your progress halted, to no fault of anyone, for a considerable amount of time. I might be a rare one out of thousands of UK students, but it’s because I just want to bask in Winchester’s famous fairytale a little while longer continuing ‘the work in progress’ slogan.

Thus far, after covering student housing issues, political spats, roadwork disruptions, local resident disputes and council budgets, the world of local news has opened up an unforgiving can of worms for me and I am excited about continuing my blog here and covering a range of topics from current affairs, student perspectives, local sport and of course Winchester based news as I embark on my journey to becoming a journalist.