I’ve tried to write this blog so many times, but haven’t quite been sure what to put in it. A lot has happened over the last few weeks, and it would be too, too much to write about all of it. So I will do my best to pick out the juiciest bits.

I’ve been in Iceland for 22 days now. Five of those I spent in quarantine, in a tiny studio flat in the town centre. I wrote my first article for the Reykjavik Grapevine in my first 36 hours and it’s been pretty full on ever since then! I’ve now been in the office for a week and a bit, and have settled in really well. The staff are all super nice, very supportive and enthusiastic and encouraging, and I’ve managed to be braver than I thought I would be about putting forward ideas for articles etc. And it’s really paid off! My news articles on the website have stayed in the most read list consistently, and all of my pitches for print articles have been green-lit almost straight away, even with the offer of more space in the magazine than originally allotted to me! It feels like…I’ve found my THING!

I’ve surprised myself constantly over the last few weeks, stepping out of my comfort zone much more easily than I thought I would, and second guessing myself much less than I normally do. And, even though the pressure has built as I’ve been given more and more work to do, I’ve not felt too stressed or overwhelmed. It’s rare for me to feel like I’ve really got a hold of something and am in complete control. And I feel it. I think it definitely helps that I have an awesome team behind me who truly believe that there’s no such thing as a stupid question, and who are genuinely willing to help out as much as I need, but the fact that I came to a foreign (albeit now quite familiar) country, alone, not really knowing anyone and just hit the ground running, kinda blows me away. This isn’t me blowing my own trumpet, it’s just the discovery of a version of myself that has tried to come out for a while and is now fully emerging.

We’re now working from home, and communicating remotely, because the virus has really started spreading and we’re in the midst of the third (and biggest) Covid wave. Which really sucks. But it’s not really effecting our work, other than not being allowed in the office. We meet over Google Hangouts twice a day, and we’ve all been conducting interviews on Zoom, and in person (at a 2m distance, of course). We’re nearing the publication date of the next print edition so everyone is frantically editing and re editing their pieces. All of mine have been submitted, except for 1 and a half which I have to go out on a road trip for…which is VERY exciting as I haven’t left the city yet.

This experience is making me so excited for my future too, the start of something really awesome! I can feel it in my bones and. My heart and my soul and my waters. It’s setting me up so well for the career I want, and I have no doubt that when I get home I’ll be able to use my experience here to get some really good work.

If you want to follow my work, I have an author’s page on the Reykjavik Grapevine website. Everything I write gets automatically uploaded there, so check it daily if you want to keep up 🙂