From late August to early February, I love Monday mornings more than any other day of the week. While other girls are comparing their fashion sense or discussing their weekends, I am with the boys discussing why the Ravens secondary needs to do a better job or whether Peyton Manning or Tom Brady is a better fantasy player. I am a football junkie, and honestly I didn't have a choice. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, football is king. The Ravens came to Baltimore in 1996 and I grew up with the team. It isn't surprising that I wanted to eat, sleep and breathe football.
When I was six-years-old I watched Monday Night Football with my family every week and would beg to stay up later to watch the sideline reporter. I pointed to her and said, "Daddy, I want to do that." You could say that I was six and that it was just a childhood dream, but unlike most childhood dreams this one hasn't changed. I have been trying since then to become a sports journalist.
Because I thought I knew what I wanted to do, it came time to put that idea to the test through work experience. It started in high school back in Baltimore when I got an internship with my local NPR member station, WYPR. I learned that there is a lot that goes into a radio show and that it isn't just someone talking into a microphone. I discovered that media, in my limited radio station experience, was a collaborative business with many layers to explore. This intrigued me and I wanted to expand my horizons to television.
At USC I have done just that, becoming very involved in the student run sports publications. I am the executive producer of a sports talk show on Trojan Vision called The Water Cooler. I am responsible for coordinating the whole show, from picking the hosts to making the rundown and choosing topics. I loved my experience in production, but I had always wanted to be on camera. For this reason I became a sports anchor at ATVN, and in this role I both produced the sportscast for the day with help of sports volunteers and then went into the studio to anchor what we put together. In that position, I realized I liked producing more: I felt that it fits my skillset more because I enjoy organizing and planning to create something. This past summer I was a Digital Media Video Production Intern with the NFL and got to see what it is like to produce for a 24-hour solo-sport station. This is what excites me: working every day covering the sport I have always wanted to cover. I do the same tasks of video editing and publishing content every day, but each task is fresh and new. I will continue to expand my experience this football season as a Producer/Editor for NFL.com and will get to take on a bigger role.
Originally, I wanted to be a football reporter because I saw a pretty woman on TV covering what I loved, but what I have come to realize in my pursuit of this goal is that journalism offers so much more. I love the ever-changing nature of media. I love that every day is different and every day is a new problem to solve and a new way of thinking. As the technology we use evolves, so does our profession and I want to help discover where mass media is headed. Every day is a challenge and one that I can always learn and grow from. I know that in this profession I will not just be working a nine-to-five job waiting to leave, I will be truly enjoying what I do and trying to better myself every day.
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