Day of Air or Drained on Arrival?

It was a long day. And I mean lonnnnnnnnnng. My Wednesday began with me waking up at 6:45 A.M and I had to get ready for an 8 A.M. pitch meeting. I decided to pitch a story about how fans are finally able to return to Staples Center starting Thursday April 15th.

It was a lot of work putting together a video package and turning it around before the day was over. I began working on my story around 9 A.M. and I did not finish until 7:27 P.M. Not only did I miss an hour of my sports commentary class, I missed a majority of the guest speaker's lecture. The guest speaker was none other than Mark Sanchez (on the bright side, there's at least a recording that I can go back to....), lucky me.

As I sat through class after finishing a 9+ hour shift for ATVN (which included three interviews, Wi-Fi troubles, a trip to Staples Center to shoot B-roll and my stand-up and my laptop nearly crashing several times), I was honestly drained. I was so tired, I nearly knocked out during class.

Thankfully (and mercifully) this was the final day of air shift I have to do this semester. As I sit writing this blog, I can't help but be amazed at all the other multimedia journalists in this field, regardless if they're pursuing sports journalism or not. Some people enjoy the thrill and pressure of putting together a story and turning it around in a day and they do it on a daily basis. I honestly admire them for that.

I am fortunate enough to have these opportunities to pitch and tell these sports stories, but to do stuff in a day, it's intense and I can't see myself doing it in the future.

This also led me to think more about my future...do I want to go to a small town in the middle of nowhere, reporting on local news and doing day of air pieces? Absolutely not.

Maybe it's because I'm honestly drained and exhausted from my last shift, but I can't picture myself leaving Los Angeles to go to a small time and report on local news. I want to be able to report for MLB or ESPN one day, but I know the career that I've chosen usually requires freshly graduated sports journalists to pay their dues in the smaller markets and then work their way up to the bigger cities (kind of like baseball). While it's not my first choice, is it something I am preparing myself for when the time comes.

I also couldn't help but stress over the quality of my work. Is it enough to land me a job? Did I make the most out of my time at Annenberg? Did I do enough to have a good reel to show off to future employers? All these thoughts and questions rushed through my head and I didn't even have time to relax and enjoy my time off.

Fast forward a few hours later, it's almost midnight and I'm still on my laptop trying to finish this blog. Only time will tell if all this was worth it, but I believe it will. My work speaks for itself, and I can only hope that my hard work will get me to my dream job one day.

All I got to say is What. A. Day. Can it be the weekend already?