Halfway through placement (and I still haven't written a blog post...whoops)! Well here we go -\u00a0never too late to start.<\/p>\n
My name is Anna and I\u2019m working in Social Research at the Welsh Government in Cardiff.<\/p>\n
When thinking of what to write\u00a0about for my first blog a few ideas have been floating around in my brain, varying from the experience of\u00a0being a country lass living\u00a0in a big city, to the structure of different levels of government in Wales. I'm\u00a0still not entirely sure what to focus on, so we'll see where this\u00a0goes.<\/p>\n
At first I found the experience of work rather odd. The simple act\u00a0of sitting inside, at a desk I struggled with.\u00a0Ever since I was small I've enjoyed being outside and moving, therefore having to sit down all day was a shock to the system.\u00a0At school\u00a0I was always moving between my lessons and the sports pitches, then a couple of years later at uni\u00a0I was always up and about for lectures and sporting activities.\u00a0So the first couple of months of my placement, sitting down inside when the sun was shining outside (think my memory may have tainted the picture a bit) were quite difficult. It\u2019s safe to say that I found the adjustment from the student life to the\u00a0desk life challenging. I decided that I never wanted another desk job and that I was going to be some sort of active\/outdoorsy instructor instead.<\/p>\n
I have titled this blog post \u201cit\u2019s a desk life\u201d. This is based upon the phrase \u201cit\u2019s a dog\u2019s life\u201d. The meaning of this phrase has changed over recent years. In the past dogs\u2019 lives were unpleasant; they slept outside and lived off scraps. In present times, dogs\u2019 lives are very leisurely; they are pampered, groomed and come and go as they please. The transformation in the meaning of this phrase is somewhat representative of my experience of the desk life at the Welsh Government.<\/p>\n
At first, I found it uncomfortable and unpleasant, however now I\u2019m very happy with it \u2013 I\u2019m even considering abandoning my prospects as an outdoors instructor to pursue a career in a desk based occupation, quite the turnaround. I feel very comfortable sat at my desk cracking on with tasks and projects.<\/p>\n
The key to this change was not external like it was for dogs, my improved circumstances have been solely due to internal factors. I have adjusted to the new way of life and have grown used to it \u2013 I am very content with the desk life.<\/p>\n
The original phrase originated in the 1600s when dogs\u2019 lives were at their worst, so if I were a dog I\u2019d say I\u2019d be living in the late 20th century. I get to sleep inside and get fed everyday, but I haven\u2019t made it up onto the sofa or bed. But I think that\u2019s pretty good going.<\/p>\n
I hope you\u2019ve enjoyed my first blog post, it\u2019s just a little insight into one of the several challenges I\u2019ve faced so far this year. I\u2019m sure there will be many more but as a result I\u2019ll be so much better equipped for all that life throws at me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Halfway through placement (and I still haven't written a blog post...whoops)! Well here we go -\u00a0never too late to start. My name is Anna and I\u2019m working in Social Research at the Welsh Government in Cardiff. When thinking of what...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1060,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-of-humanities-social-sciences","category-placements"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}