Month: May 2025
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Work Experience
May 27, 2025
Doing my Year 10 work experience at Busybird has inspired me more than I could have hoped. With 80s music playing constantly in the background, it makes the atmosphere even more homely and inviting, although much to the horror of Les, I only got the ABBA songs correct.
After spending the whole morning of my first day stressing about everything possible going wrong, the moment I stepped through the bright orange doors, the first thing that greeted me was Oscar the labrador waiting for attention, and the robot vacuum beeping loudly because it was stuck on the neon orange carpet in front of bright blue walls with shelves stacked with piles of books. Talk about colourfully chaotic.
Before I came to Busybird, I was just a high school student that was guessing how to do pretty much everything in her book and just hoping for the best. Now, I’ve learnt many things that I know will help me to become more successful and grow as a writer. I now know how to edit properly, as well as the sheer amount of time it takes to go through every page in detail and fix every little mistake I’ve made as I’ve poured words onto a page in a hurry of ideas without thinking about how they sounded.
When you’re fifteen and your dream is to be an author, most people don’t have much faith in you. They tell you to ‘find a better paying career’ or ‘just pursue it as a hobby on the side, but to find a real job that will actually get you somewhere in life.’ (No, Dad, I still don’t want to be a doctor.)
Most people don’t understand that not everything is about how much something pays, but it’s about doing something that matters and makes you feel fulfilled at the end of the day. Because yes, I could have a job that has security and pays well, but I’d always feel a lingering sense of regret about choosing something safe over doing something that I’ve known I’ve wanted to do since I was thirteen and wrote the first draft of my book in a black binder with a torch and a Harry Potter pen in the middle of the night.
Sure, sometimes staring at a blank page waiting for the words to come to you can be overwhelming, but when you look back on your manuscript once it’s done, you’ll be thinking, I wrote this. I actually wrote this. And that will be worth the time, the effort, the fighting with yourself not to give up for something easier. Because even though sometimes it can feel impossible to be able to put all these words in your mind onto the page and make them sound good, you’ll find yourself glad you took the leap when you get to type out the last words and look at the worlds you’ve built from your imagination.
As someone who’s always been obsessed with reading, I suppose it’s really no surprise that I ended up desperately dreaming of being an author. I’ve also learnt the hard way how much effort it takes to get yourself noticed in a world where there’s book after book to choose from, and sometimes nothing feels unique anymore, like all your ideas have already been used up by other people. So you need to do it better.
That’s why you need to keep going, why you can’t give up. Because one day in my dreams, someone may be walking through a bookstore, browsing shelf after shelf, and maybe, just maybe, my book will be the one they choose to take home, and it will change their life as much as writing it did mine.
And then it will have all been worth it.
Georgia Milner
Year 10 Work Experience 2025
My Week at Busybird
May 16, 2025Staring at a blank page, writing a blog about … anything?
At first, I was expecting Busybird to be a normal publishing business, very formal, very bland.
When I walked in, those assumptions melted. It was messy, but it was also unique. The decorations hanging up high, the dog, Oscar, greeting my arrival with a few licks and growls. I quickly learnt the names of everyone, and some of the interns present.
My experience here at Busybird so far has been a lovely one.
The environment is nice, friendly and inviting, often welcomed in by interns or Oscar. I was immediately caught off-guard by the sheer amount of stuff lying around. From the stage at the back of the building, and the fidget toys, Rubik’s cubes, to all the photographs and books, and then back to all the old cameras on the shelf. I didn’t think it was possible to have this much stuff in one place, but that’s mainly why I love it.
Busybird Publishing proved to be an easy challenge to get used to, (aside from Les asking me, “Who sings this song?” which I got used to quickly, maybe because he asked me so many times). I fit right in, mainly because I shared similar interests with Les, or had a good conversation with Kev; I could express my opinion on a certain topic.
Of course, then there’s the blasted kettle in the kitchen. I’m nearly positive that thing is possessed by a demon that stops me from making a tea. Why does the kettle have four modes? Why do all the modes have every single type of tea except for the one I want to make? WHY HAS IT GOT A SEPARATE BOIL BUTTON?? It drove me crazy for a good six minutes or so until I realised I just had to click the power button. Simple mistake, but I wasn’t satisfied.
My tasks were pretty simple. “Edit this” or “proofread that” and “social media post this”. I quite enjoyed them, even when certain things gave me five trillion headaches consecutively. It was a challenge, and I liked the work I’d been assigned.
Meeting all the interns was fun, especially since there was so many. They were all friendly and hospitable, and it was great to work alongside them.
So, as I said before, a lovely experience, as well as getting fired every single day of the week for spilling a little tea, a joke which Les has been dragging ALL week.
I give my thanks to Les and Kev, and of course Oscar the dog, for the opportunity to work here.
Jaxon
Work experience student, May 2025.