If It Feels Like A Dream, Is It Really Work?
In my last post, I wrote a little about my job with the Montreal Gazette, and how it had been a really busy summer for me. Of course, those who have been following me on Social Media know that it wasn’t just my newspaper job keeping me busy, but I felt like this deserved its own post. In August, I became the first hijab-wearing female video journalist in Quebec history after I accepted the position of video journalist with City News Montreal. Our first day on air was September 3rd. It’s been less than a month and sometimes, I’m still pinching myself to see if it’s real.
I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t a dream come true. As a little girl, I used to stand in front of my mirror and practice my announcer voice. The voice I would be using when I was on television one day – or at the very least, on the radio. Now I get to use my announcer voice every day when I say “In Montreal, Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed, City News” at the end of a segment. It’s proof positive that with hard work, your dreams WILL come true.
I love that I’m now a role model for little girls of colour or who are a religious minority. They can turn on City News Montreal, see one of my stories, and realize that if they work hard, they could one day be on the television. Representation matters – when I was a young girl, practicing into my hairbrush, there weren’t any visible minorities on TV. Now, thanks to organizations like City News Montreal, diversity is slowly beginning to come into the television news world.
The new position, with all of the training for the start of City News Montreal, plus my job at the Montreal Gazette, all while raising a family and serving my community has been exhausting. However, it’s the good kind of exhausting; the kind where you close your eyes at the end of the day knowing you worked hard for something you believe in. I’m not home as often as I used to be, but I’m teaching my kids what it looks like to work for your dreams.
In case you missed it, here’s the big announcement of my joining the City News Montreal team. It was an awesome day and I’m so thankful to the wonderful people at Breakfast Television Montreal for being so incredibly supportive.
