Oxford literary festival
This year i had the privilege of being able to do volunteer work for the 2019 Oxford literary festival, I was based at the beautiful Sheldonian theatre, A sandstone circular building with many architecturally complicated features such as the heads of stone surrounding the building. I spent four days working as a festival steward meaning i checked people's tickets, showed them to seats, dealt with some of the ticket holders issues and was in charge of the microphone for every question and answer session at the end of each talk. During breaks i was able to visit the festival marquee and may have accidentally on purpose tripped and purchased several new books. Its all good though, Student loans came in this week.
This was by no means a demanding job and i am not at all mad that it was all voluntary work as i got to listen to all the speakers talk, trust me, there were some amazing talkers. For the most part many of the hour long talks were on the topic of Brexit and/or climate change or as Former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson likes to say; climate justice. Being a vegan myself, it filled me with so much pride and happiness to hear countless figures in power weather it be a politician or an esteemed BBC journalist, talk so passionately and direly about the importance of sustainability which may achieved through adopting a plant based diet. I truly believe this will get at least a small percentage of the thousands of people who attended these talks to reduce the amount of meat they eat on a regular basis.
Another highlight of the experience for me was seeing ballerina Darcey Bussell in the flesh. I started ballet classes when i was around 4 years old, after i had spent half my life crying to mum to pay for me to attend ballet. The first thing i ever wanted to be was a ballerina and i continued to dance until i injured my spine as a 15 year old. It was truly so magical to see a childhood idol of mine right in front me talking about the first passion i ever found.
The third day was hands down the best day and quite possibly one of my favourite days of my life. I was lucky enough to be placed with amazing volunteers that day, we all got on amazingly well and just laughed the whole day.This then peaked when esteemed author Kazuo Ishiguro entered the building. His novel Never let me go was the first book to ever make me cry, since then only one has achieved this goal. I got to go up and speak to him at the end of his talk, he asked my name and signed my copy of his novel, my first signed copy of a book. To top it all off Philip Pullman was a member of the audience and the other volunteers and i went to go and speak to him. He was even more humble and welcoming than Ishiguro. I am truly so inspired to go back to creative writing now after meeting these two outstanding creators in person.
overall it was an enchanting experience which did wonders for my mental health and motivation to work, I would completely love to return to the festival again next year.
This was by no means a demanding job and i am not at all mad that it was all voluntary work as i got to listen to all the speakers talk, trust me, there were some amazing talkers. For the most part many of the hour long talks were on the topic of Brexit and/or climate change or as Former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson likes to say; climate justice. Being a vegan myself, it filled me with so much pride and happiness to hear countless figures in power weather it be a politician or an esteemed BBC journalist, talk so passionately and direly about the importance of sustainability which may achieved through adopting a plant based diet. I truly believe this will get at least a small percentage of the thousands of people who attended these talks to reduce the amount of meat they eat on a regular basis.
Another highlight of the experience for me was seeing ballerina Darcey Bussell in the flesh. I started ballet classes when i was around 4 years old, after i had spent half my life crying to mum to pay for me to attend ballet. The first thing i ever wanted to be was a ballerina and i continued to dance until i injured my spine as a 15 year old. It was truly so magical to see a childhood idol of mine right in front me talking about the first passion i ever found.
The third day was hands down the best day and quite possibly one of my favourite days of my life. I was lucky enough to be placed with amazing volunteers that day, we all got on amazingly well and just laughed the whole day.This then peaked when esteemed author Kazuo Ishiguro entered the building. His novel Never let me go was the first book to ever make me cry, since then only one has achieved this goal. I got to go up and speak to him at the end of his talk, he asked my name and signed my copy of his novel, my first signed copy of a book. To top it all off Philip Pullman was a member of the audience and the other volunteers and i went to go and speak to him. He was even more humble and welcoming than Ishiguro. I am truly so inspired to go back to creative writing now after meeting these two outstanding creators in person.
overall it was an enchanting experience which did wonders for my mental health and motivation to work, I would completely love to return to the festival again next year.
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