“What are your plans for the future?”
“What are your plans for the future?” along with questions like “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” and “What are you doing with your life” still send me into the same existential crisis mode as “What do you want to be when you grow up?” did 5 years ago. In other words, I have no clue what I’m doing with my life and I have no idea what the future holds. However, one thing that is different from 5 years ago is that I like what I’m doing at the moment and that I‘ve come to realise that knowing what the future holds is not as important as enjoying the moment you’re living in.
How did I get to this point? Last year, I graduated from Ghent University where I studied Literature and Linguistics (English and Dutch). A course that I started because I love literature and I have a passion for everything related to language. It was a course that I began because it offered a broad basis and I was too afraid to commit to anything more specific, because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. However, one thing that I’ve always told everyone is that I wanted “to do something in journalism”. I have never been sure exactly what, but I do know that I love language and writing, and that I’m very interested in what goes on in the world.
Studying Literature and Linguistics made it possible for me to engage with two of my passions for 4 years, but after graduating a familiar feeling crept up on me: “What now?”. Now was the time to start making actual decisions and to change “something in journalism” into something more real. For this reason, I started a postgraduate course called Digital Content and Journalism at Arteveldehogeschool. To me, it is the only one of its kind, offering a mixture of journalism, marketing and digital tools. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly digital and for that reason I believe that everyone who wants to work in media or marketing needs a basic knowledge of the tools available in the digital world, which is exactly what this course offers.
However, books, writing and media are not the only things that define me. I am interested in an array of different topics and activities.
Firstly, I love travelling and exploring new places. Especially lively city environments are where I feel most at home. My favourite cities to visit are New York, London, Dublin and Vienna. Nevertheless, I also very much enjoy long quiet walks through nature. My love of traveling has brought me all over Europe, but I’m trying to broaden my horizon and visit places further away as well.
Exploring new places gives me the opportunity to discover new art and artists. I love visiting museums and going to art galleries. Modern art museums and galleries that feature impressionist paintings are places you’ll definitely find me while I’m citytripping. However, I do also like visiting smaller museums to discover lesser known artists.
Linked to my love for traveling is my interest in photography. I always have my smartphone with me to take pictures or — when going on a planned trip — my camera. I like taking pictures a lot, but I am not a big fan of posing for the camera myself, hence the fact that I do not actually have that many photos of myself and had to ask around to find the photos included here.
Oh, one last thing; I love cats. Like, a lot.
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