End Th!nking

Photo by mooste: I voted with a pencil for the first time in my life!

I voted!

Therefore I’m done. Done with Th!nking About It.

I will not elaborate on my choice, nor convince you to vote the same. For my last post in this channel I want to take you back to November 2008. It’s when I received an e-mail from Anne Autio of the EJC explaining about the blogging competition and an invitation to sign up for it. The invitation intrigued me.

One: I know so little about the European Parliament and the EU in general. Therefore I never write about it. Politics is not something high on my priority list. I belong to that large category of people that only worries about politics when there are elections.

Two: I’m not a fervent blogger. I’ve been doing it for years, but not on a daily or weekly basis. My blogs are my public thinking pads, and I use them when I need to. They’re not sites you visit to read something newsworthy.

For me signing up for Th!nk About It was accepting a challenge. The perfect incentive to discover more about the EU and to write more.

Now it’s about seven months later and I made it to the end of the competition. To be honoust with you, I didn’t think I would make it. Even considered that writing once a month is not that much of an effort for participating, there were several moments I seriously doubted to contribute here.

I’ve had a very hard time getting tuned in to the context of this competition and the contributions of you, as fellow participants. Some of you are so good at writing, that I felt outclassed. Others portrayed classic forms of journalism, but couldn’t tempt me reading past the first alinea. Sometimes there were just too many posts to catch up with, and often it didn’t feel all that relevant to me. Despite some beautiful stories shared on this site, despite my research and grown knowledge, even despite being rewarded, it didn’t grab me.

The research I did on the Parliament made one thing clear to me: the EU has a complex structure, hard to explain in a few sentences. It’s a topic not easy to relate to when you’re not that knowledgeable and it’s difficult to write about in an attractive and understandable way. A real challenge when you’re aspiring to be (or want to grow as) a journalist reporting on the EU. It’s a career I don’t (or ever wanted to) pursue and can only encourage those of you who do, to just keep on writing untill you find the right style.

I didn’t write as much, but made an effort of creating visual material. Going back to basics with my movie explaining the power of the European Parliament pleased my family and friends. It made some of the basic decision making structures clear to them. I’m happy with the things I learned along the way, skills that will be of use for future projects.

I’m obviously more knowledgeable on the European Parliament and the EU in general than I was before the competition. Participating did that. There’s no way I would have made the effort otherwise. I want to thank the EJC for this opportunity and I want to thank you, fellow participants, for this collaborative blog, packed with stories from across Europe.

I learned a lot, but this is it. This is where my blogging about the European Parliament ends.

Happy voting everyone!

Latest posts by Elmine WIJNIA

• Letter to (future) MEP's
• The Power of the European Parliament explained.
• Lack of attention from the newspapers?
• Copyright: is the EP buying into a fairy tale?
• Being a Th!nker

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