Tell me something about you, anything you want.
Ellis: I’m Ellis (she/her) and I’m 21 years old. I’m in my final year of university studying Journalism at the University of Leeds. I’m from Malaysia and I moved to England for university, I’ve also lived in the Philippines, Algeria, and Austria. I love to travel and my life goal is to visit as many countries as possible.
Neave: My name is Neave, I am a final year Media Studies student at the University of Brighton. I founded the Brighton chapter of Her Campus in January 2021 and have been running it ever since. I love reading and writing! I write a lot of horror poetry to pass my time and that makes me happy.
When you think about the future, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
Ellis: The first thing that comes to my mind is graduating and starting a full-time job. I feel like I haven’t fully started adulthood until I finish my education.
Neave: At the moment, it’s definitely graduating. I think this is the first time in a long time that I’m now having to take a lot of my goals seriously and start to put them to fruition, which is quite a scary thought. At the same time, I think it can also be quite exciting, so I’m really hoping I will get to see my life begin and pan out in the way I want it to.
What did you want to become when you were younger? Has that wish changed? If so, how?
Ellis: When I was younger, I wanted to be a range of things. I wanted to be a doctor, fashion designer and athlete. I didn’t find my passion for journalism until I finished school; now I can’t imagine being anything else, so I’ll definitely be looking for a career in this field.
Neave: When I was younger, I always wanted to be a writer. It was something that I would say was quite teased out of me, maybe? I’m the youngest out of my siblings and they always found the fact that I liked to write quite funny, so I guess I reached a point where I stopped taking it seriously. I then started getting into films, started studying Film, had a crisis about it and then swapped to Media. I’m now pretty solid in my career path and want to be a media strategist, but I did eventually build my love for writing back up again and is definitely something I will always keep in my life to keep me going.
How much of the future is there in the things you do now? Does the future influence you now or is it something still too far?
Ellis: The future doesn’t influence me deeply because I find greater importance in living in the present. I worry that focusing too much on the future will make me miss out on what’s happening right now, right in front of me. However, I do try to work towards my future university and career. Even though I’m not completely certain about my plans for the future, I know that my hard work will go towards something and things will fall into place eventually.
Neave: The future influences everything I do, it’s the most important thing to me! It is the only actual time in life where you can change things, grow as a person and help your loved ones and the world around you grow. I’m really big on setting goals and mapping out my future as it helps to keep me more on track, so I would say it definitely influences my day-to-day life. I find it satisfying to look back on my life a year in the future and see what I have achieved based solely on setting goals.
If you could go forward in time and know only one thing about your future self or the future in general, what would it be? Why?
Ellis: I would want to know if my future self is content with her life. The future is something that causes a lot of anxiety for me, especially because I’m at a stage where my degree is coming to an end and I have to make a lot of big decisions, so it’s hard to visualise it as there’s so much uncertainty. So, if I could go forward in time, I’d want to find out if I’m living a life I’m happy with, to reassure my current self.
Neave: I would just want to know that I’m happy. Whilst my career is important to me and I would like to see if I am successful, I think I would truly just like to know whether or not I am happy. I think the most rewarding thing in life is to be surrounded by people you love who love you just the same amount – that’s where I find the most joy in life. I couldn’t think of anything better than to know I am not alone in the future and that I am radiating happiness onto myself and those around me.
What do you think the future will look like?
Ellis: I have no clue what the future will look like but I hope that it is a kinder and more loving place. The past few years have been hard for everyone for several reasons, so I think it’s important that we continue to spread love and care because everyone could use it so that we can all overcome the hardships we’ve faced recently together.
Neave: Hopefully better than how things look now! I think there are a ton of things that I would like to see about how the future looks like, for myself and the world that we live in, but do I think the future will look like that? I’m not entirely sure. I kind of feel like the way the world is steering at the moment politically, especially in England, is not going to look too great for us. I’m really hoping as a society we can collectively come together and make sure we see a better and equal future for ourselves and others, but this takes work, hope and shared ideology which are very difficult things to achieve. I will continue to be optimistic though, as it is the only thing that you can do.
Is there anything now you wish you’ll be able to keep with you in the future? Either some material or a friendship, a feeling or a dream.
Ellis: I hope that I can keep the friendships and memories I’ve made at my University. It has definitely been the best years of my life so far and I’ve met some amazing people who I’d love to keep close in the future.
Neave: So many things! I would like to keep my drive and motivation. I would like to still be in love with my partner and keep all the friends I’ve made at my University. Also, a bit random but I’ve also had hold of the first book I ever read as a kid and I would really like to make sure I keep hold of that for the rest of my life!
Words by: Caterina Bertini
Edited by: Ruchi Sohni