The Coronavirus pandemic has led to many societal changes. Not being able to physically see the people we love takes its toll mentally, only being able to leave your house once a day gives rise to a feeling of cabin fever, and university classes finishing half way through the year can make us feel lost.
Of course, this is all to be expected – nothing about what we are going through is normal or natural. It is perfectly fine to feel overwhelmed every once in a while; to feel like you can’t be productive. How are you supposed to stay productive during a pandemic anyway?!
For me, I have days where I feel overwhelmed and disorientated. But for the most part I have been able to turn these negative feelings into action.
When the lockdown began, I was finishing my classes in university. My master’s degree technically ends when we submit our dissertations in September, but for all intents and purposes, we have finished.
As a trainee journalist, I have wanted to get into freelancing for a long time but always talked myself out of it while I was at university. I was writing for a variety of websites for free but told myself I was not yet ready to take the leap into pitching to newspapers and national websites. I guess it was mostly a confidence thing, but I told myself that was something to do after I had finished my degree.
“I felt burnt out before I had even started working.”
Thanks to Corona, that “finishing my degree” deadline crept up out of nowhere, and I felt a bit lost for the first few weeks. I wanted to begin pitching but didn’t think my ideas were interesting enough. I was struggling to find that ‘hook’ that makes a story a story. I felt burnt out before I had even started working.
All of a sudden, I was able to shake myself. I set up a profile on a freelancing website, and before I knew it, I was doing some copywriting. Through that website, I got a paid job doing a daily news podcast. As my confidence began to grow, I started pitching articles to a variety of websites and newspapers and began to see the first sprinkles of commissions coming through.
I definitely still have days where I struggle to get out of bed in the morning. Days where I just don’t have the energy to write anything. More than anything, I’m struggling to stay motivated with university work.
But I have to keep reminding myself that my way of staying sane during this crisis is to stay productive. I hope that if I remember that but go easy on myself during my low-days, I’ll feel more grounded as a person by the time we are free to live our lives as normal.
Jane Corscadden
Featured image courtesy of Marvin Meyer on Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license is available here.
Jane Corscadden
Hi! I'm Jane, a 22 year old journalist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. I'm currently finishing up my journalism MA at Ulster University. I'm happy to be part of the Women in Journalism project, and am constantly inspired by the brilliant women at work in this industry.