Can you list the names of the four Beatles? I could. It was one of the first questions I faced in the newsroom.
Sometimes I think my answer alone got me the summer job at the paper, but I’d like to think my skills and education had something to do with it too.
When I was younger, I never thought to myself, ‘when I grow up, I want to be a reporter.’
No, I had bigger dreams. Like most kids, I dreamed of the NHL, and if I didn’t make that I was going to be in the NFL, but if I absolutely had to I’d settle for the CFL.
I also went through phases where I was convinced I was going to be a firefighter or a police officer. At one point I even thought I was shrewd enough to be a lawyer.
But as we grow older, reality always seems to creep in.
During my high school summers, I had stints working in mineral sampling, lawn and garden care and even a brief term at Walmart, hardly on my way to making the NHL.
Soon dreams of being a professional athlete turned into being a sportscaster. The thought of being a police officer turned into a body guard or security officer, but that just wasn’t enough.
After high school I did some work in forestry, as an electrician, a forest firefighter and even a short tenure at a call centre.
Eventually I moved on, if I couldn’t fulfill my dreams, I wanted to do something where I would at least get some of those experiences.
Fast forward a few years and here I am in the newsroom.
I’m the rookie, the newbie or fresh meat as some might say.
I wish I could tell you some entertaining stories of how Kevin and Rich pestered me throughout my tenure here, but I really can’t.
It wasn’t quite everything you’d expect from an internship. I wasn’t the guy getting coffee for everyone, nor did I change the water cooler on a regular basis.
Instead, Glenn put me right to work writing stories and Kevin had me shooting old(er) guys playing soccer. Little did I know, that would be my Monday nights for the next two months.
In April, I graduated from photojournalism, I was running on a high, ready to conquer the news world.
I figured Vernon, my hometown, would be an ideal place to start my career.
After all, 20 of the 23 years I’ve been alive have been in Vernon, I was born at Vernon Jubilee and I had graduated from W.L. Seaton Secondary in 2006.
While I might be a rookie in the newsroom, I considered myself a seasoned vet when it comes to this city.
Oh, how I was wrong.
The more stories I wrote and the more people I met along the way, the more I realized there is a lot more to Vernon than my early years and it would take at least another 20 before I could actually consider myself the aforementioned ‘seasoned vet.’
I’m not sure where I’ll end up in the future, but if my time here is a sample of what I can learn in this field I have a lot to look forward to.
I’m not a hockey star (yet), nor do I plan on starting police training any time soon.
No, I think I’ve found something that will let me live out all my childhood dreams. Even if it’s by telling the stories of people who are fulfilling theirs.
And who knows? Maybe a sportscaster isn’t so far off.
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