Regular readers will remember I wrote a brief section on feeling exhausted in a previous blog. Despite going to bed at 9pm (and to sleep at 9:30pm), exhaustion has become a regular part of my life. As I've said before, I love my A-levels. Yes, they are time consuming. Why shouldn't they be? I want to learn new things, have my beliefs challenged and expand my knowledge. Personally, I wouldn't get that from a vocational course. I think my main source of wishing to fall asleep in a corner is being utterly fascinated with politics.
Discovering that politics is interesting and essential to know about has changed my life forever. Quite honestly, there are topics I wouldn't have even begun to think about had my interest in politics not arisen (all because of the 2015 election, which I watched that November). What is taught in school, how parliament works, the many parties, what the voting system is like, whether the voting age should be lowered. All these minuscule and tiny details of politics fill my mind. My political obsession was becoming unsustainable. Every evening, I would watch coverage of general elections past and present. Hours of fascination, seeing which seats fell, suspense at a result I already knew – they, the hosts, had no idea. My eyes would feast over analysis of the result, speculation of what it would mean for the country. All this excitement made me want to become a journalist. I enjoyed writing (as you can probably tell), found politics gripping and believed others could feel involved in the political system with excellent reporting on key issues. The BBC, ITV and Sky already do wonderful work, but I felt inspired to add to that. Every afternoon, I would rush home, desperate to catch the 3:30pm news bulletin on the BBC. I wanted to know the news, a desire to feed on what was going on in the world. While I had no GCSE exams or A-levels, this was manageable. The routine fell into place: catch the news, check twitter, make comments, watch BBC Parliament and write a blog. Constantly form opinions, decide where I stand, permanently, on key political issues. Gradually, as I got older, I realized this couldn't work. A blog date would be missed, an exam would be prioritized. The current issue would pass, another dominating the headlines. I viewed this as a disaster. Eventually, I realized the quantity of information I was aware of wasn't important. Instead, it was the quality of it. Its reliability, how it would help me in my studies and beliefs, whether it was worth remembering. There would be no point knowing a slight disagreement at one select committee over a tiny matter or a remark one minister made. The important, nitty gritty stuff mattered, both to me, and all of us affected by government policies. So, what do I do now? Obviously, I still keep up with politics. It would impossible not to. Now, I mainly focus on using twitter for the latest updates. Granted, it can be unreliable, but I follow many respectable political journalists who wouldn't report something unless it was the truth. I try to watch the news at 10, but occasionally prefer an earlier sleep. Politics is a large part of my life, but doesn't, and shouldn't, dominate it. Just like politics, deciding when to watch and when to ignore involves compromise. I've realized that compromise is possible and essential. So should our political parties.
2 Comments
L
9/12/2017 18:46:40
A good read.
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Tea Talks
10/12/2017 11:03:17
Many thanks for reading. :)
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