Beginnings...

Right. Where to begin...

After deleting and re-writing this post six or seven times I've found myself completely unable to say anything that may change anybody's life. So if that's what you're looking for, I'm very sorry.

If i'm being completely honest, the only reason I'm writing anything at all is because I am utterly incompetent with HTML and have no idea of any website that will host an image for my profile.

However, now I'm here I can't help but feel like I should 'jot down' a few thoughts. I mean that's what blogging is isn't it?

To begin, there are one or two things I'm not entirely comfortable with. The first would be that I've no idea who i'm actually talking to. I've never been somebody that keeps a diary and any real writing i've ever engaged has been related to school or university. I realise that this is a pretty poor start for a prospective journalist but hey, nobody's perfect.

The above sentence contains two of the main reasons I embarked upon the world of blogging in the first place. As a prospective journalist I must write to push my abilities further. I want to gain a maturity to my writing that will support me once I've finished gaining letters after my name. The kind of maturity that will prevent me using silly clichés in my writing such as 'hey, nobody's perfect'.

I'll also try to halt that immature little habit of disappearing off on tangents...

Back to some of the things I'm not entirely comfortable with.

The second would be that opening my profile on blogger.com is one further, undeniable step towards my entire life revolving around a computer. Aside from the fact that the majority of my social activities have sadly but irrefutably been run by msn messenger from the age of about twelve, more recently I have become one of the six million people that have grown to be completely and utterly addicted to facebook.

The constant tinkering with my profile, photo's and interests combined with the not so productive allegiance to groups such as 'Sheffield United you are rubbish, hence why you went down' and 'The Reading and Leeds festival appreciation group' have led to a drastic reduction in the amount of free time I use to partake in anything productive. The fact that my lunch break at work is disappearing at an alarming rate as I write this is a lone testament to how the internet has an ever tightening grip over my life.

Admittedly that's pretty dramatic but where does it all end? (Cliché, again I know but they're so tempting!)

I'll end fairly abruptly at this stage as I can sense myself about to embark upon a one man debate regarding one of society's current major gripes with all of today's young people. 'Why don't you get off that computer and go and read a book' echoes around my house at an almost hourly rate and I most certainly know that my parents wouldn't have got away with it. Apparently national service was brilliant as well.

The reality is that I'm 21 years old and I've just graduated with a good degree in English and Music. I leave the country to travel in January for around seven months before I return to complete a masters in Journalism. That's as far as my plans go but they're certainly exciting. I believe this blog could well be a fantastic way to document what will be undoubtedly one of the most unsure, daunting yet exhilarating chapters of my life. I won't post that regularly until I leave on my travels and so for now it's just a case of getting to grips with this web page.

The fact that the first two paragraphs of this blog are in a different font to the rest should in itself, show an immediate need for an improvement in my internet-related IT skills.

Paddy