Samantha Jackson

One of my subjects at La Trobe, Making the News, requires us to do a live to air news production as a group. For this assignment, I am producer. I hadn't given it much thought until we first went to the Bundoora campus and I looked at the list of roles. Nothing else seemed to jump out at me, except being the 'big boss'.

Being a group leader is something I have almost no experience in. It's not something I constantly want to do nor is it something I have ever really considered. The one and only reason as to why I considered this position was because of my disgusting organisation skills.

For those that have been in my house you know exactly what I'm talking about. Apparently I'm the only person in my social circle who has a specific use for the bottom drawer in the kitchen. No, that use is not for storing 'junk', it is home to my tea towels.

My home office is organised to an apparently irritating standard. Everything is labelled, everything has a cosy place to live. It's rather handy, I never seem to lose anything. But it is also infuriating when life is going a million miles per hour and I can't keep up to my usual organisation standard.

This hasn't always been the case. Just ask my mum. She would give me something and two minutes later I would have lost it, forever. My bedroom was always a tip, nothing ever had a specific place. Most of my possessions lived on the floor in a heap that made Mt Everest look like the size of an ant.

One day, I'm not exactly sure when, something changed and I became an extremely organised grown up (gross, I know). From my labelled drawers that store first aid to the tackle box that is home to batteries, I have become some crazy lady who gives everything a place.

Most of my friends and family laugh at the extent I go to (although, they don't seem to laugh when they have a blocked nose and they can find the appropriate nasal spray in a fifth of a second due to the drawer having a pretty label with the words 'cold + flu' written on it), but I am the one laughing now because my obsessive organisation has finally payed off and is being appreciated by those in my class.

I had my first day as producer yesterday and I think it went rather well. Everyone seemed to be thankful for the effort I went to with the tables, lists, information and other various printouts I placed in colour coded folders for all in the group.

Although there are bound to be some hiccups along the road to production I am now confident in my own ability.

For the first week I was not confident at all. I was beginning to think there was someone in the group who would do a much better job than me and I was stressing that everything would turn to shit if I made a mistake. At one point I was even considering handing the job over to someone much better suited, but I decided to keep on going and prove myself wrong. And I did.