Because a working mom has to feed her kids. Tomorrow I have a lunch meeting with a unit of a conglomerate we cover. Then back-to-back calls with my manager and a law firm in Bangkok.

Today was super tiring. It was a whole day of back and forth with my manager, a pushback from her, a pushback from me…I just need to advocate for what is best for my team. I’m just too tired and heartbroken to write it down tonight. I need to destress…

I had been a walking ball of stress the past few days due to admin issues. I swear scrounging for stories to meet monthly quota or answering emails from irate interviewees can never be compared to the stress I constantly face daily as a manager—especially when bosses and management do not understand Southeast Asia. They don’t understand that Southeast Asia is not Singapore and Singapore is not representative of Southeast Asia. You shouldn’t just say yeah, we already have people in Singapore so why need to cover conferences in other parts of Southeast Asia???

Of all of the stupidest—

I’m tired. I really am.

And one of my reporters told me to apply for the leadership program that the company is offering and told me it fits me. I attended the Q&A call for this… Ummm no. That’s for ambitious people who want to climb the corporate ladder. For people passionate about what the company is doing. I am not passionate about the company (in fact I don’t like my parent company) but I’m passionate about my profession. These are two different things.

I may be able to articulate this whole thing tomorrow, when I’m less incensed.

This afternoon, a faculty member of my undergrad college visited me here at my house to drop off their gifts to me in appreciation of that 1.5 hr lecture I gave to their undergrads about interviews and ethics a few months ago. We talked for several hours—starting off with how the new kids these days are just 🤦🏻‍♀️ inexplicable. The level of entitlement is astonishing!

We also talked about the dumbing down of the whole undergrad curriculum is stupid. They made it a generalist curriculum, which is counterintuitive in this era of AI and social media where everyone can make AVs/movies without going into art school or comms school. Everyone is a content creator nowadays—it’s no longer the sole territory of those who went school for it. Just like anybody with a DSLR or mirrorless camera can claim to be called a photographer or videographer or a citizen photojournalist.

The edge I got from the previous curriculum was unquantifiable. The reason why I am good with what I’m doing is because I am a specialist and had always been so from day 1 in college. You cannot afford to be a generalist in this environment where algorithms can take over your job…and AI has been progressing faster than anyone can imagine. You have to be an expert in something. If it doesn’t work out, your general ed will save your ass and then pivot. Yes it’s good that I have a little background in broadcasting and educ/audiovisual comms—enough for me to understand how broadcast works, how other comm media work. It’s good that I know how to draft comms strategy/campaigns and marketing plans because it makes me more flexible. But I am a journalism specialist and I have been hired for the skills I have honed early on and that’s my unique value proposition. I can’t be a half-baked moron and expect to be irreplaceable. Well, no one is irreplaceable but, you get my drift.