Being young and successful

Hello, rabid readers!

A couple of days ago, I was engaged in a conversation with a friend concerning one of my previous blogs. This friend is someone who I disagree with on many things, but nevertheless is an intelligent person who has interesting opinions, whom I enjoy spending time with and whose opinions I respect even if I may not share. The conversation started when I wanted to gauge his opinion on one of my previous posts. We actually didn't talk much about the subject matter in the end, as the conversation quickly shifted into the quality of this blog generally, and continued to progress into other topics, but it was an interesting conversation and I'd like to share a bit of it. He gave me quite a few tips, some of which I agree with and some of which I do not, but all of which I will take into consideration when writing future blogs. One that sticks in my mind was the suggestion that I should condense this into something a bit shorter, which I think I should definitely consider doing! Not least because then I would probably be motivated to update this more, which can only be a good thing.

Anyway, one thing that we got onto quite quickly was my friend advising me to recognise the limitations of my own position when putting across my opinion on things. Now this is something that I generally attempt to do - everything I write on here is my own personal opinion. I am not working for anyone, often I have no formal qualifications to say what I do and I don't think I have ever claimed anything different. My friend did say one thing with regards to how I put myself across that really intrigued me: 'Saying you're an actor, political activist, blogger and former radio station presenter is ridiculous coming from a 20 something student.' There was an indication there that given the fact that I am a 21-year-old Creative Performance student, I am not as credible in being these things than someone who is perhaps in a different professional, financial or social position.

Whilst I disagree, I did find this an interesting sentiment to brood on, because I feel that it is a perception that a lot of the public quite likely have. There does seem to be a school of thought that if one is young, especially if they are a student, they are not yet in a position to be taken very seriously in certain fields, and if they wish to be they must be humble about it. Why is this? I actually think that it is a very good thing to be young and to take yourself quite seriously in a professional context. There are probably other people who may look on their achievements differently to how I do, and that's fine, but I'm proud of them and I think that I have the right to have them recognised. All of the things above about me are true. I am an actor - in all fairness, it would probably be more accurate to describe me as semi-professional rather than professional at this stage simply because it is not currently my main source of income, but in terms of the work I do outside of my University course I'm very comfortable calling myself an actor. The dictionary definition of the word 'activism' is: 'The use of direct, often confrontational action, such as a demonstration or strike, in opposition to or support of a cause.' I have engaged in this form of activity on numerous occasions, and continue to do so. And in the past, I have had a regular presenting role at a local radio station - not a national radio station, but I don't think that this limits the credibility of the work that I have done (in honesty, I think that bearing that in mind this is more impressive, because more recognised stations normally involve a lot more staff working on the technical details behind programmes, and the presenter may not actually do much besides the actual presenting. I wrote, organised and ran my programme entirely on my own, including driving the desk, and considering I was only 14 at the time, I have no qualms about being exceptionally proud of this accomplishment.) Therefore, I think I am entirely justified in calling myself an actor, political activist and former radio presenter, and I don't think the fact that I am 21 years old and a student should make any difference to that. I consider those to be additional facts about me.

Does this gain or lose me respect? It's a tricky one. I think that respect should be earned not by what a person says about themselves, but by what they prove to people. I make no bones about being quite straightforward about my accomplishments when I meet people, and some people may consider that slightly pretentious. I try not to bring it up for the sake of it in an arrogant way, because I think that this can be quite easily misconstrued. However, when it becomes relevant I will mention it, and I would hope that the skills and knowledge that I have gained from these things will be strong enough to present me in a positive light to whomever I am dealing with. Generally, they have done. Of course there is the odd person who I don't get on with, but I think that we all will occasionally meet people who one's approach will grate on, and that shouldn't mean that you have to change your style unless there is a really good reason. Overall, I think I've made some fantastic contacts just by being honest and being myself. I also try to respect people for their accomplishments regardless of their age and background, because that is how I want to be treated myself. Over the last year, I have worked quite closely with Tom Bennett, a Bristol film director who is quite respected in the world of film, and has some very high reviews and many exciting productions to his name. He also happens to be 19 years old and a student. It seems that this has not hindered him a great deal in becoming a very successful director in his own right, and from what I have seen he seems to be just as respected as someone older. Barnaby Raine, another 19-year-old and political activist who I haven't exactly worked with, but I've spoken to a bit, seen at public events and talked to a little online (I've mentioned him on here before) is also very capable and respected within the field that he works.

There are many others that I know of as well, and I think this is great. Obviously as a student I meet a lot of young people, and many seem not to believe that they can be respected in their own right for their accomplishments at least until they are a bit older. Personally, I believe that anyone can be whatever they want to be at any age, so long as they have the maturity, intellectual capacity and confidence with which to do it. I suppose it comes down to whether one sees oneself as a child or an adult at the end of the day. When one is in one's late teens or early twenties, this is something that varies from person to person. I am an adult. I have no doubt about this. I didn't become an adult when I became legally of age in the eyes of the law, it was around a year ago that I realised that emotionally I have matured to that level. I feel like an adult, I think I have the capabilities of an adult and I would like to be treated as one. Happily, the majority of the people in my life these days do.

Well, bearing in mind my friend's advice I tried to keep this blog shorter, and it is less than half the length of my most recent one, so I suppose that is something good. I have had a couple of comments from other people who have found my blogs a little inaccessible because I am naturally quite a wordy person, so keeping them shorter would probably be a good idea. Having said that, whilst I would like more hits on here it isn't so important to me that I would compromise the general way that I write for that - not least because most of the comments I get are positive, and I think that I am quite a good writer. I'll write what needs to be written, and if that takes up a lot of words then so be it. But I will try not to use more words than I need to to sum something up. Being concise is important as well, I understand that.

I'm on a break from University currently, so hopefully I shall have some more time to blog over Easter. Take care x