A Letter To My 17-Year-Old Self, By Middle East Talk Show Host And ABC Journo Jessica Swann

Jessica Swann has already had the kind of career that would make your head spin. She worked for seven years in Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, created a talkback radio show called Dubai Today and co-hosted the Middle East and North Africa’s first English speaking women’s TV talk show HerSay.

Here she continues our letter to my 17-year-old-self series, addressing hers to a baby-faced Jessica just about to apply to nursing school.

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Jessica,

I remember being you, filling out that VTAC form with nursing as first preference — not really knowing if it was going to be my final career destination but seeing it as a way to start. Travelling was really important and you figured becoming a nurse might mean working with Médecins Sans Frontières. After one year you deferred that life and took to the sky as a flight attendant, desperate for freedom. This ended up being something like a gap year; something I still highly recommend.

You returned to university, while flying, but changed to a BA in Media and Communications, double majoring in Media Communications and Marketing at Swinburne University of Technology. They were brilliant because they understood your circumstances and supported you through your studies, which took five years due to the nature of flight attending.

You were the first person in the family to attend university and when you began your BA you were terrified of not being clever enough. I still remember the title of the first essay, “Narratives are problem-solving operations whose methods always hold social implications”… you failed it. But a couple of years later got your first High Distinction, with the same teacher.

It was always very clear to you that intelligence is a form of currency that opens doors everywhere so you became very driven to become well-educated.

Toward the end of your BA, September 11 happened. Two days after that, your airline, Ansett International, collapsed. It was hard to fathom that Australia’s longest operating airline, after more than 60 years, had collapsed literally overnight and you were just one of the 13,000 staff who was now unemployed. There you were again, back to what now?

You wouldn’t have believed that the next 13 years would entail a successful international career as a broadcast journalist, living in countries around the world including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, USA, UK, work with the ABC across Australia and a Masters in Islam in the Modern World.

But there was all that and more, and those years taught you to stick with what builds your confidence and use this as the vehicle to navigate figuring out who you are.

Many opportunities will come to you and if you don’t take them, others will. Have courage.

When Ansett collapsed, an internship opportunity in the USA came up with the American Broadcasting Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was during the Winter Olympics and you were living the dream but also being challenged on multiple fronts. The experience made you realise the importance of questioning everything in the media.

One day after you returned to Australia, reading the BRW and The Economist, you were appalled at two separate feature stories with an anti-Islam agenda. Anyone with half a brain, you thought, could work out that with a global population of 1.3 billion Muslims (in 2003), it was nonsensical to suggest this bias and divisive agenda.

You became deeply curious about Islamic and Arabic cultures and moved to the Middle East in 2003 to work on private jets for the King of Bahrain — a prominent Saudi Sheikh and a Saudi Ambassador. It wasn’t until the role as an Executive Producer on a business radio programme in Dubai that the BA began paying off. You went on to host and produce Dubai Today, a news, current affairs and human interest program and got to co-host the Middle East and North Africa’s first English speaking women’s TV talkshow, HerSay.

In 2011, the ABC offered you a broadcasting job back in Australia and while there you completed a Masters in Islam in the Modern World at the Australian National University College of Arab and Islamic Studies in Canberra. After the birth of your (gorgeous) son in 2014, Swinburne asked you to teach in the school of social sciences. Two years on and you sill love it. Particularly the fact that many of my students are studying the BA in Media and Communications.

There are young people, just like you, who will never ever live in peace and never have the chance that you have to make a difference. And you must make a difference. There’s far too much need and too much competition to not do your best. Good results will give you more options; never forget that the discipline you need to be good at anything is the best lesson of all.

You have a story; we all do. Everyone is trying to find their own way, we’re all searching for the secrets of how to build a meaningful career and live a good life.

Your education will propel you far into the future. Take it seriously.

Jessica

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It’s time to declare your VTAC preferences. At Swinburne we say don’t over think it — just follow your heart and choose what feels right for you. At Swinburne you’ll know you’ve chosen the right path.