Today I am hosting a blog from Sonia Hussain, who took part in a week of work experience with me through the charity organisation Arts Emergency. Take it away, Sonia!

Hello, my name is Sonia. I began working with the Arts Emergency organisation in order to further my knowledge towards a creative career path within history (my degree). I am fortunate to have worked alongside the ingenious author Emily E K Murdoch on a historical/creative fiction placement.

She has motivated me to unearth the hidden depths of creativity I have. Since I graduated university a few months prior, I can assure anyone who has completed a history degree or any degree that trains your mind to be fact-centric, it is a challenge to think beyond that: to make up stuff feels wrong and unnatural to say the least.

As a result, I experienced a moment of ‘writers block’ at the start of the placement which unfortunately led to a ‘domino effect’ on the rest of the week. I unexpectedly followed in Emily’s husband’s footsteps when he submitted his dissertation at the last, last minute, as I am currently writing this on the day of the deadline…so minus the exaggeration to his standard.

Nonetheless, I want to state my gratitude to the endless support, joy, and excitement the organisation and placement has given me, which leads me to illuminate the need for interventions throughout life to tackle low social mobility.

The type of intervention defined here is the educational and social intervention made primarily by family members or careers and to a partial extent by teachers or staff of an institution. I argue that the role of parents/careers to make an intervention can yield great impacts later in life. Even though I managed to beat obstacles to achieve success, it certainly proved difficult to obtain passed results for all GCSE and A-level subjects to then progress to university, where I earned a 2:1 upper division from a Russell Group University (yes, I am going to rinse that till I die), I went through little to no intervention at all stages of academia.

For example, having parental, academic, or emotional support during any stage of my education would have been helpful in allowing me to achieve my possible best, as well as gifting me the tools of self-confidence and independency to tackle anything head on.

I acknowledge that my English knowledge and skillset are not as sharp as I’d like it to be, I constantly need to relearn the rules of SPAG, ultimately affecting my willingness to write, as a great idea does not translate into the best form.

In spite of this struggle, organisations like Arts Emergency and writers like Emily, have supported my own and others’ development in the writing process altogether, showing me that once I change my mindset, I can change my outcome.

I have a reinvigorated, new sense of creative and historical process of thinking, one in which I am comfortable to express myself, no matter how many errors I make. Indeed, I can and will construct fine pieces of work so long as I remain consistent and strong-willed that I am a valuable creative.

Thank you so much Sonia, for this vulnerable and insightful blog!