As you already know if you have read my post: A great new publication, I have embarked upon a journey writing for a new paper alongside editor Martin Shelley. Whilst I shall predominantly be writing food related articles, (my second assignment saw me dining in a premiere restaurant,) I have varied interests that I feel sure will be of interest to readers regarding local news.
Fate is a funny old thing, I thought I'd found my destiny when I started working in special needs education, I loved the children and miss them everyday. However, writing has always been my first love, and to be able to do it as more than a hobby is like winning the lottery.
When I see young people on reality TV shows such as the X Factor claiming (at 16-25 years of age) that they've wanted this all their lives, they're destined for this, that they can't go back to ordinary lives.....I cringe somewhat. We all have dreams and I am a great believer in pursuing them, however, as Maya Angelou once quoted: 'You may encounter defeats, in fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are.'
We are living in a have it all society but as they say: 'There's nothing worse than having everything just to realise you have nothing.' Whilst I believe you are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it come true, I do believe you may have to work for it.
I read a very sad article recently regarding one of my favourite journalists Jaci Stephen. Jaci had the career I wanted, working since 1984 as a journalist and broadcaster and as a film and TV critic. I loved Jaci's style, waspishly witty she was living a high profile, well paid lifestyle which was very enviable. Like me, Jaci came from a normal working class background, we are only five years apart in age and share the same sense of humour. But from humble beginnings Jaci clawed her way up the Fleet Street ladder and fought her way on to TV.
At the age of 29 Jaci owned a property in Belsize Park, london, her career took her all over the world from private yachts to eating regularly at the private members' club, The Groucho, where her spending began to take on a life of its own and invariably she'd pick up the tab for all of her friends.
Interestingly Jaci spoke of the highs she got from spending money, she said: 'If I went out to buy a £60 keyboard I'd come home with a £3,000 Clavinova piano. I rented a box at Cardiff Arms Park rugby stadium, and in addition to the £13,000 it cost a year, I paid for all my guests food and drink and every week met with a bill of around £400. I rented apartments in Paris and Spain, I showered people with gifts, holidays and cash, I frittered away more than £1 million with nothing to show for it.'
Jaci studied hard and worked hard, but fame came to her at a young age and catapulted her into a life which spiralled out of control. Jaci says: 'loneliness is something I have never chosen.' Yet having lived the high profile lifestyle, loneliness is something she has never been able to escape from, 'My lifestyle and spending became a means of treating my loneliness.'
It's a cautionary tale for the younger celebrity craving generation who want to clone themselves to fame, Jim Carrey once quoted: 'I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer.'
Looking back on my younger self, when I aspired to be a writer, I realise I wasn't ready and had many life lessons to learn, they say that God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame and I think it's true, sometimes we can't see the woods for the trees in terms of how lucky we are. Wealth is like sea water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
My heart goes out to Jaci who has lost her last bastion of security, her home in Cardiff. Being without security and money, with no loving partner or children seems a very high price to have paid, Jaci still has her fantastic writing ability and the support, comfort and reassurance from her family and I wish her well.
On that note, I'm off to my conservatory to write an article for Shorelines, for which I shall never be rich or famous..........thankfully!
'I've always been famous, it's just no one knew it yet.'
- Lady Gaga
Love Donna xxxxxxxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment