Are you ready?

I promised you Big News and I’m building up to an announcement, so I hope you’re all ready. I don’t want to shock the socks off of some of you.

Because it really is Big News, well, for me anyway. It could open so many doors, and just being able to write it on my CV will make me so much more attractive to potential employers or universities.

On September 26th I will begin a two week work experience placement with Now Magazine.

YES, REALLY.

Someone actually said yes. Which is a MASSIVE deal. The first thing I did when I found out was email my Mum and Sister in shock, and all in capitals, with the words ‘SOMEONE ACTUALLY SAID YES’.

I applied all over the south, to so many local magazines and newspapers and heard barely anything. On a whim I applied to a few national magazines thinking ‘what have I got to lose?’ I didn’t expect any of them to actually get back to me. Especially one that I actually read!

I’m amazed.

I have to admit that I googled the person who emailed me with the offer, just to make sure they were a real person and did in fact work for Now Magazine. It was a bit like the day a lovely old woman handed me my A Level results and I tried to give them back because English Literature had an A next to it. I genuinely didn’t believe someone had actually said yes. But they did! They did, they did, they did! I’m going to London for two weeks to work at Now Magazine!

As you can probably tell, I'm very excited. I’ve been giddy as a schoolgirl since I found out.

There is one thing worrying me though.

The dress code.

I emailed to ask what kind of clothing I’d be expected to wear and the response was: ‘There’s a relaxed dress code at Now – I’d suggest to just wear the outfit of the future journalist you would like to be.’ I don’t know what journalist I’d like to be in the future, that’s why I’m doing work experience all over the place. What if I wanted to be a foreign correspondent in a war zone? Would they expect me to turn up dressed in beige with a bullet proof vest on?

Mum thinks they want me to dress like Alexa Chung, ‘like a mess’ (her words, not mine, though I am inclined to agree). I’m assuming they want some kind of smart-casual-fashionable hybrid style which is going to be very difficult for me as I tend to dress like a mess. And not a cool mess like Alexa Chung, more like an student whose clothes most definitely come from a floordrobe rather than a wardrobe.

So, ‘dress like the future journalist you would like to be’. Any tips? I need all the help I can get.