"Why Do You Round Everything Up?"

Listening: "Debarge Interlude" (Live From Stanford, CA), Teedra Moses, Live From The Jungle Vol. 2

I used to think about immature things
you know like do you love me, do you want me, are you gonna
call me like you said you would, is this really your real phone number
But you know I'm a man now baby a grown man and I came a long way
and experience taught me one thing... taught me to hold on to my love

-From El DeBarge, "I Call Your Name"

It's been a year and a half since I graduated from college and began my career in television news. For so long I was just happy just to be a working journalist. For the first six months I was a broadcast apprentice pretty much learning everything there was to learn about various jobs in the newsroom: assignment editor, web producer, news writer, and field producer. When my apprenticeship ended I was flattered that I was asked to stay on as a news writer and then fill-in as a web producer when two of my colleagues were out on maternity leave at the same time.

Lately, I've begun feeling like I've hit a brick wall, that I've stopped growing, and stopped having fun. That led me to have a conversation with our weekend morning anchor this morning. One of the first things she asked me was how old I was? 23 One of the next questions she asked was the longest I'd been away from home? Three months. She rounded my age up to 24 and equated my internship in Illinois to summer camp. She went on to challenge me to evaluate what I really want to do, know where I want to be, and develop a plan of action to get there.

When I asked her "why do you round everything up?" She said because you have to think about the future. She's right, I can't go back in time and unring any bells, or undo anything I've done. I can plan, be aggressive, and move forward. So my mines fine tuned and fixed on the future.

Checking In

Hello all, I know it's it's been a minute.

I don't know why after nearly four years of blogging my posts have become so sporadic.

But anyway I decided it was about time for me to check in.

Life these last few weeks has mostly revolved around work and my volunteer duties.

I think I've talked about it before but my apprenticeship ended in February after seven months, when it should have been six (I got an extra work due to the time I took off for volunteer board service).

My supervisors asked me to stay on as a freelancer and work as a fill-in web producer while two of my colleagues were on maternity leave.

Well one of my colleagues delivered a week and a half ago and the other is set to go in for a c-section tomorrow. Also we have a gay couple at work who adopted a baby boy last week. Talk about a baby factory.

It's great though that I'll be filling in for the ladies while they're out. I'll get more hours and have an opportunity to make money to save up to maybe get an apartment, have money for the journo conference later this summer, and possibly pursue graduate school.

Lately the idea of going to law school has been floating around in my head. Before I got the journalism bug I always said I wanted to be a lawyer. Growing up I idolized Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, in part because like me he's from Baltimore.

I jokingly still tell people that I'm still deciding what I'll be what I grow up. Truthfully, I'm grown up, but I'm also still deciding which path to take.