Starting anything new is always daunting. Is it what you expected? Is It the unexpected? I think both these questions can be scary ones. If it’s exactly what you expected going in, one can ask themselves whether they have been challenged enough? Now entering our sixth week and hurtling towards our finish line at Agent Academy, these are the questions we can begin to address.
Digressing to me for a bit (yes, it IS all about me), I have always been a person who doesn’t shy away from trying something new, no matter how much it may shoot my anxiety through the roof. Before gaining my place at Agent Academy, I lived in France for four years (for an ex, but we won’t go into that). Before moving to the land of many wines and oh so many cheeses, I had no idea what to expect. I had just graduated uni and had no idea where my life was going. So when this opportunity – or maybe it was a romantic fallacy – arose; I hopped, skipped and jumped straight into it. Being a distant dreamer can be completely different to what’s simulated when those dreams materialise, and no one tells you this. Moving to France was not how I envisioned it at all and even though it didn’t work out, and I quickly found myself back in the home of the ol ‘rents, I can’t deny that this experience boosted my confidence and spurred me on to take the dive (just call me Tom Daley) yet again and embrace the unknown – Agent Academy.
I had no idea what Agent Academy was going to be. I just knew that I had been locked out of the industry for four years after graduating with a Media Studies degree, and I was – and still am – oh so tired of being in the hospitality and retail sector. Now, that’s not to knock it, but merely recognising that I’ve always considered myself somewhat creative and it doesn’t fulfil me in a way that I know is obtainable. Agent Academy dangled an effervescent light at the end of a very long tunnel, almost guaranteeing that I will be able to enhance my skills and finally kick down the wall blocking me from the creative industry we all so desperately crave to be a part of.
It’s safe to say that six weeks in, it has been unexpected. When navigating a new realm, anything that does come your way will automatically be a contrast to what you had originally imagined. This is the case with Rise in a way that has been engaging and beneficial in challenging previous ideas of what the creative industry, and getting into it, actually entails. Challenging at times? Yes. However, I can safely say that every activity, speaker session, and group discussion has slowly but surely, like the tortoise I am, equipped me with the confidence, knowledge and motivation to finally hop, skip and jump (okay, I’ve said that twice now. Maybe I’m a hare?) into the creative industry. Week six and I am already in my motivational speaker era? Oh how exciting to see what the coming weeks will bring. Agent, you go girl.