A Transition
Keeping across what's going on.
I don’t know how many of you have returned to work after being on parental leave but it’s a rough transition.
Whilst I worked after I’d finished work, because teachers work on the holidays, regardless of what people think about how many holidays we get, I was able to take 12 months because the leave was available and I work in a government school. I’m not my own boss and bowing out of the entire school year was my own way of ensuring that I gave myself space from work, because like many people, having a baby was the only way I would take that kind of time off from work.
Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed since I had a baby, and another seismic shift occurred when I went back to work. My media consumption has dropped considerably, and I genuinely feel like I couldn’t even tell people what I like anymore. Besides The Pitt, obviously.
Being a Media teacher means having a high general awareness as to what is happening in the world of media; what movies are about to be released, who recently said what, and which bands that I’ve never heard of are about to release an EP. Being on leave, returning to work, and then not being able to wrap your ahead around what day it is, really isn’t conducive to also just keeping an eye on general things happening around pop culture.
This isn’t a woe me but rather acknowledging a change to something that has been imperative to my work for the longest time; before I even considered it work. The feeling I am describing is not unique, it’s common for a huge change to throw everything up in the air, but also to make you wonder whether this is something you want to pursue. No better time to make change when change is happening etc. etc. I am not sure if that’s a saying but I’ve no doubt that there would be lots of sayings about this. It just feels really lame to type ‘quotes about change’ into Google.
This piece feels like it’s at an impasse. Should I talk about motherhood and media, or should I talk about media that keeps me up to date with media. Perhaps the latter. I don’t have it in me to talk about the former right now.
Dan Barret’s Always Be Watching is the ultimate TV newsletter. It’s an industry focused newsletter that has some of Dan’s thoughts on shows without these being the central focus. It is great at flagging what’s good, what’s going on and what’s coming up. I will forever be grateful to Dan for writing about The Pitt before anyone else was talking about it.
Just Watch is an app that I talk about a lot, but I don’t feel like enough people use it. Essentially you enter all the streaming services you have and you can search across them, save things to your watchlist etc. It has also has a ‘new section’, where you have a feed of what’s just been released on your streaming service.
Other newsletters related to media things that are happening that I always read are; One Thing, Highly Flammable, The Social Juice, Candice Wuehle and Mumbrella. I subscribe to lots of great newsletters but in terms of this specific genre these are the ones I will always open. Oh, I also really love Evan Shapiro’s War and Peace but I can struggle to contextualise what I’m reading, but he is the first ever Media Cartographer and his stuff is fascinating.
Anyway, not media related but I love that someone would see this mug and think ‘I did get another chicken!’.
