Forty years of telling your stories

By Virginia Winder

This picture of me was taken by a
Taranaki Daily News
photographer in the 1980s.

Even though my life is all about words – writing, listening, talking, reading – 2023 is a year of big numbers for me.

In January I turn 60, in March I will have been serving up Flower of the day for 10 years, and 2023 marks 40 years as a journalist.

Four decades of interviews and telling stories. What a ride – and if I was a character in one those sci-fi books where I could go back in time, I’d do it all over again.

I don’t know how many tales I’ve told, but it’s probably around 18,000. About 450 a year, which is roughly 8 a week. There were some years I did way more than that – about 20 stories a week and sometimes 30.

During the one year I spent in the US, I wrote just a couple. Other years, I wrote one or two each week, including penning a column for NZ News UK by hand, while sitting beside my newborn son’s cot the morning after having a caesarean.

I’ve also tapped out stories while in mental health care, having to keep my door open because my room, the walls dented by tortured souls, was as hot as South India in mid-summer.

Sitting, with my fingers flying over a keyboard writing someone’s story, is the place I feel most comfortable.

Back to the numbers. My figures could be way off, but still I know how incredibly lucky I’ve been to have a life filled with stories. And people, people, people.

Fortunately, I didn’t listen to the tutors from the Wellington Polytech journalism class, who rejected my application to do the course in 1981. I was 17 when I received a letter telling me I wasn’t a suitable candidate and should think about a different career.

I was furious. What the fuck did they or their stupid aptitude test (filled with maths questions) know about me?

Of course, we know I didn’t give up.

In fact, that rejection letter made me more bloody-minded determined to become the journalist I had dreamt of being since age 12 – that’s another story.

So, at the start of 1983, I began the six-month journalism course at ATI (now AUT), kicking off a career of sharing stories. 

This year, in this blog, I will tell many more tales. Some will continue the story of my life as a journalist and others will be fresh interviews and features about people I admire. I want to celebrate my 40-year milestone by celebrating others.