When people ask me how I ended up in journalism I proudly tell them: I didn’t choose journalism, journalism chose me. My mother hates it when I say this, but it’s the truth.
When I was in high school, I was extremely shy. Instead of eating in the cafeteria, I would eat at a single desk in the corner of my high school newspaper office. One day, the teacher in charge of the paper asked me if I wanted to help them out and possibly write a story. Well I jumped at the chance, and so began my career in journalism. Journalism helped me overcome my shyness.
This morning I met hundreds of Chicago high school students who feel the same way I do about journalism. I was a presenter at the 17th Annual Scholastic Press Association of Chicago Conference at Roosevelt University. Scores of bright-eyed, talented budding print and TV journalists attended the conference. They had plenty of tough questions for me, including: How did I get my first job? What’s the best story I have ever covered and what is the saddest story I’ve covered? What motivates me? Have I ever turned down a story? Wow!
I left the conference energized, invigorated, proud and most of all hopeful.
These are tough times for every industry, including journalism. Papers are folding or filing bankruptcy; TV stations are merging and shutting down. But even in the midst of this seismic shift in the business that I love so dearly, I know that it will always be around in some form or fashion, and it will continue choosing young people to follow their passion…report the news…and most of all change lives.
