<B>From journalism to teaching</B>

She did her first degree in journalism but ended up doing a job she did not intend to do. Today Sheena teaches English in a private school and finds it exhilarating.

Since a very young age, Sheena thought she knew what job she wanted to do later. She wanted to be a journalist. But her desire became even greater when she was fifteen years old. That was because she was sent by her school to work for a local weekly in England. She did it for three weeks but her passion for journalism existed mainly because Sheena loved writing.

When Sheena completed her secondary education, she did a first degree in English language at Luton University. After that, while she was doing a part-time PhD, she worked for a financial company that dealt with stocks and shares. She did both her first degree and her PhD intending to work for a newspaper or a radio station.

But her intentions changed later on. ?I was still focused on becoming a journalist at university, taking a number of modules in journalism and media writing. However, my focus started to change when I realised I didn?t have a natural gift for journalism and at that stage you have to be realistic about choices in your life.?

Once Sheena turned down her chance of working in the media, she had to choose another field. By coincidence, she decided to do something she never wished to do when she was young: teaching. This was not a field really foreign to Sheena. In fact, many of her relatives were involved in it. For example, her father was a senior lecturer and many of her aunts were school teachers. Moreover, Sheena herself knew what teaching was like as she had some experience.

In fact, Sheena did not complete her PhD and was offered a full-time contract while she was working for it. But, just before this, during her final university year, every afternoon she was giving tuition to some kids learning to speak English. This was the key moment when she started feeling some passion for teaching. She then carried on by teaching in a school that opened every summer in Cambridge. Hence, she spent every summer in Cambridge continuing her teaching experience for four years.

?When you do not find something too problematic and you enjoy it, you do not mind carrying on. Teaching was not really an area of interest for me at that time. I had just taken the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) modules to fill up the gaps on my course, but it was then that I realized that I really enjoyed it and was good at it.?

Once she was sure she wanted to teach, she threw herself into it. First, she started working in a school called West Thames College. She was teaching English. She then moved to teach English but this time as a foreign language in Lewisham College in the south-east of London.

Dancing was one of Sheena?s favourite hobbies in England. In fact she was used to do a lot of Bollywood dancing when she was in England. Here in Mauritius, reading and art are her favourite hobbies. Furthermore, she likes interior decoration. Sheena speaks mainly English as it is her first language. She also knows some Japanese as she learnt it from a friend a long time ago. And if she were to describe herself in one word she would say that she is complex.

Sheena was born on 30th May 1975 in England, in an area called Brentwood. She is married to Nitish whom she met when she came on holiday to Mauritius. And when they got married, their initial plan was to go back to England as Sheena never wanted to stay in Mauritius. However she has changed her mind and she has been in Mauritius for two years now. But today, she cannot say much about her future. ?To be honest, I have no idea for the future. I will probably stay here for some time. But I miss my family and a number of things in England.?