You don't know where it goes, and you only heard of it from locals. It seems appetizing because the legend behind that shortcut says that it can take years off of your journey; however, you have no idea where it will put you. The main route takes you a way that has been weighed, measured, and found to be adequate, if one was tough enough to complete difficulty. Both routes have their advantages and disadvantages, but only one can be taken.
The crossroads, as they lay in front of you, sound the alarm to an important choice that will soon be upon you.
That's what is running through my mind as of lately with a new choice within the field of broadcasting.
Here is an older blog that I wrote as I graduated from the CT School of Broadcasting in October of 2007:
Where am I going?
There are a lot of questions that run through my head as I realize that I am being watched by a security camera in the security shack. I hate doing security. I absolutely hate it. I’ve hated it for two years, and I will continue to hate it. The people I don’t mind. The people are great. The job sucks. It’s horrible. I want to leave in the worst possible way, and I am doing everything in my power to do so.
Broadcasting is what I was meant to do, and no matter where I am going, I know I will excel. You know all of those sayings that you heard as a kid?
“If you set your mind to it, anything is possible.”
“You can do anything that you set your mind to.”
“Nothing is impossible.”
I know what you’re expecting me to say, and you’re wrong. I’m not going to disagree with them at all. They’re right. Anything really is possible. But what they leave out is what leaves many people discouraged. It should read:
“If you set your mind to it, and have patience, anything is possible.”
“You can do anything that you set your mind to, and set your butt to wait to.”
“Nothing is impossible, if you have the time.”
“Nothing is impossible, if you have the time.”
Why don’t they say that in those sayings? Was time not important enough to mention in the teaching of that to children? That’s like telling a kid, “Hey, set your mind about being home…No, don’t worry about the time, just be home.”
WHAT?
Children need to be taught patience, and I’m extremely thankful that my parents taught me that. Granted, I am better off then a lot of people I know, but still, patience can be taught at any age.
I heard something recently that has been sticking in my head.
“When you ask for patience, it won’t come in a pill form; it comes with situations that require more patience than you currently have.”
Right now, in my life, is one of those times.
I woke up tonight to my alarm clock, but instead of being the usual, repeating buzzer, I got Dave Matthews asking me a question via song: “Where are you going?” The scenario was ironic, to say the least. I am looking to move somewhere, anywhere, for broadcasting. I am throwing around my resume and press kit to any vacant position that I am qualified for, regardless of location. I like to call that the “fishing” technique. Sometimes my bait isn’t the best, but I am currently working on getting it to be the best and tastiest morsel of entertainment package that someone like me would ever have…so far.
CSB taught me a lot, and the money and time that I put in was given back to me ten fold. Okay, okay, the money not so much, yet, but I know it will come. I think that I have enough determination to keep going amidst any turbulence that I might encounter on this new flight pattern of life.
That song is stuck in my head, and it is ringing harder with my heart than I’m giving it credit for. I haven’t listened to Dave Matthews in such a long time, and for it to just BURST back into my life with the most ironic timing is just very, very, peculiar.
Ever have those times where as you are just FREE THINKING your mind brings up a memory that you didn’t think you’d ever think back to again? My mind is going through that again.
This time, it’s back in August 2004. I had been working at Computer Renaissance for approximately a month, and life was going great…or so I thought. Shawn, my manager, called me up to him after we closed one day. He gave me news that I have never heard before in my entire life. “Geoff, I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.”
I was so heart broken. It was my first firing, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Now, not a lot of men will be up front about saying this, but I admit, I cried. I did wait until I got into my car, but I cried like nothing else before. I had the rug slipped out from underneath me and that had never happened before. My job was gone, and for a month, I was unemployed.
After searching and searching, and having interview after interview, I received a call from an old friend. Jackie McGuirt. I had worked with her as an intern at WHTNTV-39 as a senior in high school, and I was happy to hear her voice.
The phone conversation was immediately something that I had wanted. She asked me if I wanted a job at WHTN, the local Christian television station here in Mt. Juliet.
OH MAN! I took that opportunity much like Britney Spears would take at a comeback. I was all over that. It was a Master Control Operator position there, and I was the happiest that I had been in a long, long time.
Sadly enough, a year or so later, I fell asleep while working over the weekend. They lost an entire half hour of programming, all because of my error. That one mistake cost me a career that I had enjoyed so much, or so I thought.
It was shortly after that, where I went into security. It was a fun job when it started. But now, two years later, I hate my job in security.
For an ADHD kid, security is the…Worst. Job. Ever. I am not kidding. It’s hell. I want to be up, moving around, being faster paced, going and going. I want to be rushed to meet a deadline to get a story about a house fire or a car wreck on the air by 4:30. I want to be sitting in the anchor chair, giving YOU the news of the day.
Will I get that? Yes…in time.
I feel that now, that time is coming up again.
I was given a write up for not doing a Morse round, due to adverse weather, which is ironic, considering that’s what they WANT you to do. If there is adverse weather, don’t do a Morse round.
Oh, that reminds me…
Morse Round: (adv) The act of hitting a wand onto a sensor while patrolling the grounds. Guard is required to do two (2) rounds per eight (8) hour shift, and three (3) during a twelve (12) hour shift.
Okay, since we’re all up to speed, at the new post I have, I’m not supposed to do it during adverse/severe weather.
Last week, it stormed. I saw rain and lightning, while hearing thunder. So, I didn’t do my Morse rounds, obviously. Well, I was written up, and it said that if I did it again, I would be “relieved of my post,” or fired if you don’t understand the jargon.
I have a feeling that I am going to be going through the same thing that I went through with Computer Renaissance and WHTN. One job ends, one career begins.
Security is just a job for me. It’s not my career, and it never was intended to be. It was something to hold me over until I could find something else. Well, I found something, or more re-discovered something I should say. Broadcasting.
I’ve missed the angelic microphone and her sister, the video camera. I’ve missed the harmonious act of broadcasting television: the director telling the cameras where to go, the cameras moving in an elegant ballet, while the talent works their thing in front. It’s all slight of hand. You are captured by talent on screen, while behind is a world in which the language is gibberish, but the cues are wonderments only known those in the industry.
Keep the chair warm for me, lady television. I shall return better than ever, and this time, I will not make the same mistake twice.
I have a television voice but a radio face :)
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