By Jemma Burgess

What is work?

My dad is an extremely hard working man but he has never ever enjoyed his job. His mentality has always been that you just get the job done so that you can have money to provide for yourself and your family. The fun comes as a result of all the hard work. I don’t agree with this. Nor do I agree with that if you find something that you love doing, you never have to work a day in your life. For me, SCA is where I’ve found the balance. 

You have to work hard at SCA just to scrape by and if you want to make a dent in the industry you have to work even harder then you could have possibly imagined. It is honestly work that never stops. For all the mums and dads out there who are stalking your children on twitter to see what they’re up to ( Hi mum ) we don’t just sit around all day looking at pictures and chatting about words, I mean we do but it’s more than that.

There really is a skill to it. Your work becomes your shadow, it follows your relentlessly, when you go home before you go to bed when you’re out with friends when you wake up for no apparent reason at 2 o’clock in the morning. It’s always on your mind. Well for me it is. On top of that, you battle with yourself about how you could be working harder or how you could be improving quickly. Am I working at my best? How am I still here? However, not once have I ever thought that I don’t want to do this. I love my shadow. It’s now part of me, It’s an element of my identity. I feel like I’m constantly growing.

No matter how hard you work, it should be fun. You should have a passion for it because what’s the point if you don’t? What’s the point in putting any effort into it?

Alongside this is the people that you work with. Growing up there’s been a part of me that has always felt like a bit of an outsider, that I’ve never fully fitted in. SCA has such a diverse group of people that you would think it would be quite difficult to fit in but I think that’s why I love it.

No matter how different you are to the person next to you, we’re all a bit mental and we really do get each other. Everyone wants to be part of a tribe, a community of people who you can truly be yourself with. I think I’ve found that and I’m bloody grateful that I get to be here working my ass off doing something I love.

Peace out. x