Before I moved to England for university, I spent most of my gap year working at my local paper in what still is one of the best jobs I've ever had. Every morning I'd drive there, in my mother's Opel Corsa with my fresh licence, and be told, "Go do these stores, here are the contacts." I'd come back with copy or there'd be a blank page the next day - I was 19 years old and this was how it worked. I still can't believe my luck at getting that job.
I didn't have a mobile phone back then - when we arranged interviews, we'd ask the person how to get to their house from the nearest landmark. We didn't have email in the newsroom either, and I remember the paper covering the pending arrival of something called broadband. This makes me sound ancient, but it's really not all that long ago. I'm squarely an Xennial, the microgeneration between Generation X and Millennials, whose childhood was fully analogue before we seamlessly transitioned into a digital adulthood. Without a doubt, it's the best of both worlds.
One day at the paper, I realised I'd forgot to get the names for my photos from a revue show - you ALWAYS need the names in a local paper. I asked a colleague what to do and he suggested calling the council: "They will be able to help you. Ask them if anyone there is a member of the revue group." I did as he suggested and a few minutes later I'd been transferred, and got the names by describing the pictures to a friendly stranger. I think about this often - how senior reporter Per Snekvik taught me there's always a way to get the information.
I'm packing up my house right now, as we're moving. I think it's good to put your hands on your stuff on a regular basis, to keep the load light and remain on speaking terms with your old selves. I still have cuttings from that newspaper job, and I still have a portable disc drive and a small DVD collection too, for the days when the wifi cuts out. Or should I say, that was what I used to have it for - the internet runs like clockwork now, and last time the wifi cut out I just tethered to my phone for a few hours.
But I kept the disc drive anyway, as we can't make ourselves too reliable on newfangled things, can we now. I think if you've experienced the beginning of a new invention and have seen it be very unreliable, it's going to be hard to fully trust it. This is probably my most analogue sentiment: the conviction that it's good to know how to do things without "the technology". This means being able to find your way without Google Maps, knowing how to make coffee with just a pot, and printing your photos. Having grown up with power outages being a normal occurrence, I still feel a little uneasy about living in a house without a wood-burning stove.
I think the reason why I've been thinking about my time at the paper, especially the months over the summer, is because it was such a big transition - going from childhood to adulthood, from a home country to a new country, from school and into the real world. I knew where I was going but it hadn't started yet, so I was just hanging out, in between. I'm having some of those feelings again now, being done with the old and looking at the new, waiting up ahead.
I always used to feel restless about transitions, but it’s different this time. I think I’m just happy to be feeling this kind of lightness again, after everything - there was a good while where it didn’t seem possible to get here again. But here I am, in that in-between state and feeling excited, again, still.
Things I've been writing lately.
Vegan cheese: The final frontier - Wicked Leeks by Riverford Organic
There are vegan cheese out there that would fool you into thinking it's dairy - I tried some, and the legends are true! But while non-dairy cheese is miles ahead on climate and emissions credentials, there are still a few sustainability niggles. For Wicked Leeks, the magazine from Riverford Organic, I went on a flavourful adventure to learn how not all vegan cheeses are created equal.
Things I've been reading lately.
For this month's article recommendations from around the internet, head over to Reading List, Art is Sustenance edition.