I LOVE my JOB!!!
Most people cannot have a job where they are up before 4:00 am AND say that they love it. They especially cannot say that after having a history of hating a job that allowed them to sleep in until 6:30 or 7:00.
I was one of those people. I hated it. HATED IT!!
And as I have done some reading, I learn that most people hate their jobs. Which makes me wonder, why do we put up with it? Is there no way to make things better?
I guess I am very lucky. I sort of knew what I wanted to do at an early age. The problem was, my pursuit of it was ill-conceived. Out of high school, I thought I wanted to be a film maker. But, it turns out that I am too heterosexual to work in Hollywood. Some would say, too conservative. I'd argue that. I think that it came down to the fact that I really did not have the eye for it. So, TV or radio were better options. Then I did not go after it while I was in college the first time, I was also a little to unprepared for college back then. Call it a lack of maturity, call it a lack of focus, whatever it was, I flunked out.
Then it was jobs. And I liked making money. Money can do some good things. And one job led to the next, to the next, to the next and to the next. But that is all that those jobs were good for, a paycheck. Never liked what I was doing and I was not particularly good at it.
A conversation with my mom one night on the phone in late December 1999 or early January 2000, led me to looking at getting my degree once again. I enrolled at the University of Tennessee. At the time, I thought that my employer required me to get a business degree in order to get tuition reimbursement. I later learn that was not the case. And, as it turned out, the business school at UT did not admit me. So, I decided that I should go after the shortest path to a degree. That was to go in to something in communcations. Public relations....if you know me, you can see where this might be a problem. Advertising...I viewed it as another conduit back in to sales and I was burned out by then. Speech Communication seemed interesting conceptually, but did not see what the career advantages a Speech Comm degree gave me unless I went ot graduate school. Journalism....I had such a limited amount of respect for most journalists at the time that I did not want to counted among their ranks. That view has changed having worked with some fine reporters over the past few years, but at the time, I did not have much respect. Glad I learned that lesson.
So, that left Broadcasting as the only remaining major to go after. I had been a Broadcasting and Film major when I was at Central Missouri State, so a lot of those classes plugged into my major just fine.
But, I knew back in the fall of 2000 that I would never actually use my degree, I was just going to get it as a means to open doors for me down the road.
That started to change on March 9, 2001. That was the day that I was fired. A series of events led to my dismissal, some my fault, but many others were part of someone's recipe to get rid of me. What's done is done, I am better off for being gone. That person is not. And I will leave it at that.
Later that month, or early in the next, I met a local news anchor during my broadcast news writing class. Ted Hall asked the class if anyone wanted to be on the air. Some raised their hands, so did I. I added, that I would love to be, "but I am 30 and probably too old to get started now." Ted stopped the conversation right there. He told me in front of the class, "you are older than the other students here. But you can use your age to gain credibility. Use that."
Taking Ted's advice, I moved forward. My first chance to use that was at a press conference at the University of Tennessee where they announced the hiring of another new basketball coach. I interviewed the coach one-on-one after he left the podium. And many around me did not know who I was. One those people pulled me aside to introduce himself. Upon learning that I was a student, gave me his card and said CALL ME when you are read for your internship.
Two years later I had my degree. I worked as a traffic reporter for a year and a few months when my program director offered me the chance to host a one time show. It was October 2004 and I hosted a show for about 75 minutes breaking down and taking calls following the Vice Presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. That led to my first hour a week show early in 2005. That led to the other weekend shows in early 2006. And that led to me getting a full-time show host job in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2007.
As Kathy told me yesterday, Jefferson City is now home. Knoxville is simply where my family is living and where I currently own a house. That is the only negative part of my sitaution right now. I do not have my family and I do not own a house here. That is temporary.
And again, I love my job. I hope that you do to. Or, that you can learn to.
