Confident answers help you fool yourself. And so, confidently, when people ask what my plans are, I have been saying without batting an e, "Media advocacy. With a rights group. You know... media campaigns, using the press to educate, to disperse information, to assist development... that kind of thing."
Except that now, I go in thrice a week to the media division at one of the world's largest human rights groups and I realise that maybe, just maybe, once you've been a journalist it could get really hard to be anything else. Or work anywhere but in a newsroom where tempers are running high, egos are easily bruised, morning emails are never as gentle (or humorous) as the ones here and where a deadline if not met, or a phone left unanswered, could cost you your job. Well, your credibility anyway.
It's a hm-moment.
