2 weeks before my traineeship at Radio 2 ended, I decided to relocate to BBC Africa, a platform I'd always been fascinated with and wanted to explore further.
Over the last 5 months, I've been branching out and exploring other parts of the BBC; Trending, Outside Source, World Have Your Say, Newsday, and now BBC Africa. It's been incredible having this additional experience and exploring areas of journalism that I can genuinely see myself doing.
My first day with BBC Africa was quite intense - in a good way - inspirational. Surrounded by hard-hitting journalists who are very passionate about African stories, and articulate it in a way that connects and engages so many listeners, viewers and readers. "That's the kind of journalist I want to be!" I thought.
After having a very pleasant catch up and talk with an editor at BBC Africa explaining my passions about m journalism and being the face of the youth wanting to connect more audiences with the use of digital, I was then pointed in the direction of an editor who looks after content that is right up my street!
After having a lovely welcome and chat with this other editor, I was then invited to spend a further few weeks with her and the digital team. I was ecstatic and had a good feeling about this.
Being a digital journalist is quite freeing, very creative, expressive, and an independent duty. You should be able to get things done quickly, efficiently, and have an eye for telling a story in a way that will make the viewer stop what they're doing, and watch.
At first it felt more refreshing than daunting being trusted to be free with how I chose to edit and tell stories through video form.
I'm very blessed and happy to be in this position, people would kill to be in this position! Even though at times I feel like I need new eyeballs due to the hours of editing I spend doing. Long live BBC Africa!
Oh and yes you read it, I'm no longer a trainee! The year spent from doing intensive bits of radio training, to live events, to the master classes, to being free to go to other parts of the BBC, have been the best months of my life as of yet. I held onto one of many things I said to myself when I started my traineeship on 29th September 2014; "the opportunities are out there, it's time to go and grab them!"
I'm still currently working at BBC Africa and at my dear radio 2 at the same time, still a full schedule, but a lot less crazy, and a lot more manageable.
So thankful!
