Nobody said it was easy

Just when I was contemplating sacking this journo lark in favour of pursuing a career at Aldi's (company car and £40k management salary can't be sniffed at), 'ping' went my email inbox with a response from a publishing company with whom I'd recently applied for a job.
This was not my dream job. Nor even a job in the sector that I dreamt of working in. But with Coldplay's 'nobody said it would be easy' lyrics on a loop in my head, I remember that any illusions I previously harboured about the transition from graduate to Marie Claire being a swift one were promptly dispelled upon beginning the thankless task of job applications.
Ahhh... job applications. Currently consuming my every waking hour (discounting nicotine breaks of which there are many) and getting me nowhere fast. Until the arrival of said email.
Interview arranged and having completed the necessary research on this small, "rough around the edges" fledgling publishing house, I'm feeling good as I arrive in Aldgate in my newly-purchased Primark couture.
The offices are certainly not going to win any design awards but the director with whom I meet is simply lovely and over the course of the next 40 minutes, manages to restore my faith in the me-me-media and bring me out of the despair in to which I was fast sinking (80 fruitless job applications will do that to you).
I don't think I got the job (there were over 70 applicants, some of whom are currently on Reuters payroll - ungrateful swines). I'm not sure I want the job (proofreader). And it's almost irrelevant whether I get it or not (though my two overdrawn bank accounts may indicate otherwise). I came away with my confidence revived, once again believing in my abilities as a journalist (something that had begun to ebb away somewhere between job application form #2 and #80), and with a new-found drive to be where I actually want to be, not just be wherever will have me.
As I left she handed me a £20 note, told me to go and buy six magazines I REALLY want to write for and then use the chutzpah and self-belief that had come across in my CV to pitch my ideas until one is commissioned. Of course it won't be that easy and the coming weeks will no doubt continue to be plagued by tantrums, feelings of despondency, and Jeremy Kyle. But I will get to where I want to be.