A biologist in the wrong habitat

Following the underwear disaster of my first day at the journalism cadet school I thought that second day could only be an improvement. I was, however, sorely mistaken. I quickly found myself drowning in a sea of unfamiliar jargon and even failed a spelling test. A spelling test! Let me explain: I have not written or as was more often the case failed a spelling test since primary school where my pigtails and over sized dress made me so cute that the failed tests were quietly ignored as nobody could bear to shout at me. To make matters worse many of the other cadets seemed perfectly at home, while I felt like a biologist who had wandered out of her habitat and was now unable to survive in this new wholly unsuitable one.

Walking to work the following day I decided to adopt the Darwinian view with regards to my survival in the world of journalism. Adapt or die - although this usually refers to species as a whole over generations and not individuals I think it still applies here. Since I was not quite ready to let my budding career die out before it started, I set about the task of adapting. I found that I had to adapt the way I thought, I had to get used to not knowing what I was doing and realising that it was okay. In short it does not look like this biologist will be going extinct in the newsroom anytime soon... I even managed to pass the second spelling test!