Orange Girl World

I have been updating my CV.  According to “experts” employers just LOVE to see your hobbies and interests.  I have two genuine interests to place on a CV: yoga and creative writing.  I feel like I need a third in order to create balance. 

I used to put “going to the theatre” down on my CV.  I don’t feel like I can do this anymore.  I am at the theatre more than ever before, but that’s for work.  Although I see tons of plays, only rarely to I get to see a production in a non-professional capacity.  It doesn’t seem right to use the theatre as an interest anymore.

I have been wracking my brain for a genuine interest to put as my third.  I want a genuine interest in case I am asked about it in interviews.  I don’t want to be forced to lie.  In the end, I realized that the thing I do the most and what I really enjoy is watching TV.

I love TV as you probably can tell by this blog.  I think about TV and my favorite shows a lot.  The characters of Lost, Gossip Girl and Mad Men mean nearly as much to me as my best friends and family. 

I bawled my eyes out when Juliet fell down the hole.  I desperately hate the actor Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barrett from Mad Men and Phil from Lost).  He might be a nice guy, but I want to spit at him…twice.  Once for what Jimmy did to Betty and once for Phil hitting Juliet.  Last night I dreamt I was a new character on Gossip Girl.  It’s been a long time since I woke up feeling that happy.

The thing is, you can’t put “watching TV” down on your CV.  It makes you seem really lazy.  While it’s okay to put “attending the theatre” because that sounds classy; “watching TV” makes you sound like a bit of a loser. 

It’s horrible unfair. Fundamentally, the theatre and television provide the same entertainment principle.  They are both a method of story-telling.  While I have seen some awe-inspiring performances on the stage, nothing can touch my heart more than a well-acted and written television show.  Likewise, although there is plenty of crap TV shows (Big Brother, anything off of BBC3 and all things with Chris Tarrant) there is a lot of crap theatre (things at the Royal Court, for example).  My point being, TV should get more respect in the spectrum of the arts than in does, and it should be okay to admit to watching TV on your job application.