"...So that we can learn to pick ourselves back up."
So here is a little more information about me for you all. Radio wan't something I dreamed of doing. Radio was something I listened to for years - primarily when I was driving, when I was going to bed, when I was cleaning... Alright lets get real, music and radio has always been a primary aspect of my life. When it came to a potential career path, it was definitely overshadowed by my love of sports and television broadcasting.
Sports. Ask my boyfriend how upset I get if he tries to make plans when the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing a game. Let me tell you how many eye rolls I get when I ask if we can put the Monday Night Football game on, regardless of who is playing in it. If there is one background noise that is always on when I am in my apartment, its football, hockey, auto racing, and occasionally baseball. When the olympics are broadcast,the TV would have to burn out before I would ever think of turning it off. I just love sports. In all seriousness, besides the cleanliness of my apartment, you'd think a guy lived there. However, I am not a walking statistician. I don't have every roster memorized. I can carry on a conversation and hold my own, but I never claimed to be a walking encyclopedia of sports.
Music. I love music. Any kind of music (almost). I'm stuck in the 80's though. Give me hair bands, give me rock. My guitar "gods" are Eddie Van Halen and Ted Nugent (who by the way I got to see live for the first time ever this past summer. I was in heaven... almost. If only David Lee Roth could learn to sing...). I love finding out facts about bands. Like why on Van Halen's venue set up they requested a bowl of m&m's with all the brown ones removed. Or that the song Welcome to the Jungle was written off a balcony looking over a city, and combined with a guitar rift that Slash had played years before just sitting at home. I love stuff like that.
Television. Something about it caught my attention. Maybe just because it is what I had on all the time. Maybe it was genetic, since my grandfather was a reporter. I have no idea. But thats what I wanted to do. More than anything, I wanted to be Andrea Kramer. On the sidelines, interviewing players, updating on injuries, talking to coaches. I wanted to be down on the field, in the action, and getting the story.
So what lead me to radio? An internship fell through, one that I thought I had. I was given an interview after being told I didn't have a position, and it was almost the textbook definition of a bad interview - the worst part was it only lasted ten minutes. 5 of which wasn't even an interview, it was me hearing about how I wasn't qualified. I was upset, I was frustrated, and I was left wondering "Is this really where I need to be? Is this what I want to do?" After many talks with my family, I sent out an application to a handful of local radio stations not far from where I lived. Basically saying "this is who I am, here is my background, please let me work for you". Within 24 hours I had emails from three companies. All of whom were interested, two of which didn't want to do anything until I was back in California... Which was a problem because paperwork had to be filled out before hand... But there was one person, who was willing to do an interview over the phone.
I prepared like I did for my first interview. I had webpages open about the company, about all the radio stations, about the man I was interviewing, I was ready to go for this interview... Once it happened, I didn't need a single one of those webpages. It was one of the easiest interviews I have ever had, it was casual, it was comfortable, and I had the position. Not only that, but I was working with the morning show of the station I have listened to for years. I was excited beyond belief.
From day one I was on the air with the guys, editing audio, and getting into it. Honestly, I felt like a fish out of water. Nothing at college had prepared me for a radio internship - I was completely equipped for television and writing, but not for being on a morning show. I dove in, and I loved it. I loved the people I worked with, I loved the things we talked about on the air, and this past summer, I fell in love with radio. I liked that if I didn't feel like doing my hair one morning, it was ok to go in with my hair pulled up. Lets get real, whose going to see you besides the people you work with? I liked that on the morning show, you could bascially talk about anything and everything. Nothing going on in sports today? Thats ok - don't beat a dead horse. Talk how Pearl Jam is slowly relseasing new information in a unique way on their website. Not only that, but do it live while they're doing it. I liked the flexability, and the fact that a morning show is just like having a conversation, and anyone who listens can chime in and add to it. The even better part is - you don't have to read off a teleprompter. You say what you wanna say, and word it how you want, in the moment. No scripts. Pure, conversation.
Was this what I thought I wanted to do with my life? No! Not even close. If you would have told me coming into college that I would land a radio internship the summer before my senior year and that I would probably have laughed and said "yeah, right!". Now, I can't imagine not doing it. Sure, I was upset and frustrated after what I had my heart set on seemed like it just wasn't going to work. Did I give up? Maybe. I don't see it that way. I looked at my options. I decided that maybe thats not what I wanted to do my whole life. I questioned that career path on a regular basis anyway, so maybe it isn't what I was meant to do.
So why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up. I wasn't in a great place after the train wreck of a first interview. But after this summer, I think I found what I was meant to do. I picked myself up, and kept moving forward. Will I fall again, probably. But hopefully I will be able to continue on like I have in the past, and find the next best route. Life isn't always a cake walk, but thats what makes the good times even better.
What I learned from this whole experience: never give up and keep pushing on. Even if its not in the direction you wanted originally.
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