Wait till later for overseas adventure
Straight out of high school, Livia Cullen needed a break. Like many before her, she planned on celebrating the end of Year 12 by jetting off to Europe for the trip of a lifetime. But Livia’s plans to party her way through Europe were soon washed down a dirty kitchen sink.
When asked if she would recommend eager school-leavers to jump on the first plane out of Australia, Cullen, now 26, flatly responds, “No. I would tell them to wait.”
The lure of a post-secondary overseas adventure is understandable. After 13 years of study, why not get an education of a different kind and backpack around Europe, wind your way through South-East Asia or guide the leaders of tomorrow at Camp America?
But young people with little work or life experience may find it difficult to get started. Employers are unlikely to hire an 18 year old foreigner with a very thin resume.
Livia’s experience mirrors many others. Her dreams of an exciting European vacation disappeared quickly after arriving in London in 2000. She had hopes of scoring a great job, working with exciting people, and earning enough pounds to save for an extensive trek around Europe.
Instead she spent four months working in London for a catering company under poor conditions, doing long hours and for little financial reward. “I worked in a stinky little kitchen. It cost me a whole hours wage just to get to work on the tube”. This low wage combined with London’s high cost of living saw Livia’s plans to travel extensively through Europe scuttled.
Making friends with people from around the world can be a rewarding aspect of living in a foreign country. Livia found it very difficult to meet people in London. She worked with a lot of other Australians in her catering job, but it wasn’t the most culturally diverse workplace. “Apart from the Aussies there was maybe one English guy working there. I was hoping to meet people from all over. It wasn’t a lot of fun”.
While Livia’s time in London was fairly grim, she eventually saved enough money for a brief jaunt to Europe. When recounting her time staying in the Italian village of Bracciano, her face lights up. “The culture, the people, so beautiful. I stayed in this little village and was shown around by locals. I didn’t do the touristy thing at all. I loved Italy.”
Livia was also taken with France, in particular the Parisians she met along the way. “Everyone was so friendly. I didn’t even have to ask for help or directions”.
Livia’s trip wasn’t the adventure she had imagined, but her experience serves as a lesson for other travel-hungry high school graduates. “I would just tell people to think about other options first. Some people might benefit from staying in Melbourne and entering the workforce and then maybe head overseas in their mid-20′s.”
Diana said,
April 18, 2010 at 11:24 am
This is a good first effort at soft news profile writing. It is interesting to hear the change in tone from your previosu posts. Where is that personality? Interestingly you are also less verbose when you write as “tim the blogger” instead of “tim the student journo”. The trick here is to write in your style, but to the discipline. So the lead could have been shorter–you spend a lot of time introducing before you get to Livia. You also need to encapsualte a news theme–first time travel might not be the best time–seems to be the theme; it should be throughout the story. Lastly, cut the fat from sentences! Remember the discipline of hard news still applies to sentence and paragraph construction in soft news. Good job overall!
thisisgettingsilly said,
April 24, 2010 at 1:09 am
Thanks for the feedback Diana. It’s funny, I think when I write the articles, I write like I do at work – as a sensible communications man. Maybe I am over-thinking it or something because when I do my blog responses I just start typing what is in my head at the time. I will have to try and channel this into the articles/assignments to make it a bit more natural.