Dear Internet,

Over the past year, it has become apparent that, perhaps life after university, isn't as easy as its made out to be on the big screen. Dreams don't come knocking without you showing them which house is yours, and fairy god mothers don't help you go to the ball without being paid in advance. Life doesn't start moving until you give it the starting shove, and that is something i think i have finally realised.

So let me first introduce myself. My name is Jason Hyde. I am 22 years old, with a degree in psychology, which i gained just over a year ago. My life prior to now has been pretty standard. Just a typical student, trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life, and not doing a very good job with it. However the past year for me has probably been the most enlightening so far.

To give some context, upon finishing University, i still had little to no idea what my career goal was, which in all honesty isn't much different to me now. While at uni however i had a generic uni student part time job in retail, mainly to help fuel my alcohol habit that comes with the territory of student life. So upon graduating, i asked for more hours, as it made sense to make as much money as i could while looking for that dream job. However when you don't know what your dream job is, it makes it all the more difficult to find. So months went on and my motivation to even look for other work slowly diminished. Then an opportunity came up within my retail work, to progress to a higher level within the store. Although i was aware working in retail was not my dream job in the slightest, i went for it with the mindset that it would enhance my CV and make me more employable to other companies. It soon became apparent that this role had a lot more responsibilities than i was first aware, and the more familiar with the job i was, the more i realised i was in basically doing the jobs a manager would be, but without the title or pay check. I stayed at this position for a total of four months before i was poached by another store, to become part of their management team.  Now throughout those four months i soon realised that i really didn't enjoy the work i did. It was bearable thanks to the friends i worked with and i did enjoy having more responsibility, but i realised the company i worked for didn't have the same values as i believed a business should, in the way it treated its staff, and i was very aware i planned to leave as soon as possible. However this opportunity came along and again, i thought of the benefit of adding manager to my CV and the pay rise. So although my main aim for to leave the business and find the dream job, i still went for the position and got it, meaning changing stores once more and even more responsibility.

Upon starting this new role, it soon became apparent that my new boss and myself had very different ideas on how to treat people, and run a store. To cut a long story short any enjoyment i felt in the company was squashed very quickly in this new role. Strangely area managers seemed to be impressed with the work i was doing, and i seemed to be on the fastrack to progress further within in the company. I of course could not mention my plans to leave as quickly as possible to them, so i would often discuss with them plans for my further development within the business, when inside i was thinking 'not a chance'. I then remained within this store a further 5 months looking for other work, while doing very long hours at the same time. However i finally received a job offer, to begin a role within care work for adults with disabilities. Which brings us to the present day.

Although i am not sure care work is my dream job, i do feel it is something i will enjoy much more with a lot of rewarding benefits. I have just begun this new job and already am feeling more like myself. When i was younger i used to think money was more my focus than doing a job i particularly loved, but after doing a role i definitely did not, i have realised my priorities have changed. To sum up, this new role will allow me to have more time for me to get back to things i enjoy. So i have decided to begin this blog. I am not sure what the end result of this will be, however my plan is to showcase more of my photography, as this is something i discovered is a love of mine, and to talk about things i am passionate about.

Although i am not sure how much i will write on this blog, i feel it is a good start to bring my creativity side back out again, and hopefully whoever reads it will enjoy it too.

So thanks for reading, any comments or questions feel free to write them below.

Jason.


P.S. This is me.