By Matt Williams
LOCKDOWNS, online teaching, and social obscurity. Joining university during these challenging times offers new students less than many of them had hoped for. However, for first-year student Lewis Sharpe, university offers him the most important thing of all… The opportunity to become a sports journalist.
(Credit- Facebook)
Despite these uncertain times, Lewis Sharpe was determined to grasp the opportunity to become a sports journalist with both hands, a decision he is happy he took.
“I’ve really enjoyed everything on the course so far, but I imagine I speak for everyone when I say I hope we can get back in the Atrium as soon as possible.”
“Learning remotely can be quite difficult at times but overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time so far.”
Although Sharpe’s halls experience has no doubt been affected by a series of lockdowns, the 19-year-old has managed to find positives from living in accommodation.
“I’m glad I’ve come to halls because I realised over the Christmas break that I just can’t do work back home, so living in halls means I can be more productive!”
“I’m lucky that I enjoy the company of my flat mates, so it’s not that bad really.”
The Bangor-man believes his passion for sports journalism has been in him from a young age, with an English A-Level experience igniting his desire.
“I’ve always played football and rugby and I’ve always been interested in watching all sports really.”
“I think the first time I thought about it was in school – I took English at A-Level and I remember our teacher just told us to write whatever we wanted for 10 minutes and the first thing I could think of was describing a Wales game from the night before.”
He continued, “obviously, at the time I didn’t know what I was doing, but looking back, it was probably the first sort of ‘match report’ I wrote. I’m sure I’d be embarrassed to read it now!”
The Welsh football fanatic admits lockdown has affected his ability to develop relationships on the course to date and is looking forward to normal life coming back.
“It’s been difficult to get to know other students on the course when we’re very rarely in face-to-face lectures and, when we were, we were in smaller groups. I knew a few people on the course prior to coming to university, and I’m in contact with a lot of them quite often.”
“The pandemic has massively impacted the likelihood of developing relationships with others. There are some people on the course in my year group who I’ve not been able to speak to, so I’m really looking forward and hoping that we can get back to reality soon.”
Sharpe says daily walks and getting his fix of weekly sport has helped him negate his way through lockdown restrictions.
“Between September and the end of December, I was lucky to be out reporting on Cymru Premier and Welsh Women’s Premier League games most Saturdays and Sundays. Now, of course, the league has been postponed, so I’ve been walking quite a lot to keep myself busy.”
“I’m glad that most professional sports are back, so I can watch football and rugby. I’m really enjoying the Six Nations at the minute and that’s really giving me something to look forward to for the weekends.”
