The First (Real) Job

So it's been forever since I've posted and it's one of those things that gets harder and harder to do the longer you go without doing it. I originally intended to update this site at least once a week with my general opinions on current events along with the occasional piece of prose or poetry.

But at the urging of a friend and former teacher, I have decided to take this blog in a new direction.

First off, let me say that I love what I do for a living. I am a journalist. To be more specific, I am aspiring to be what the world needs more of: a good journalist.

My friend said he thought it would be interesting to have a look on the inside of my profession from my perspective: the perspective of a young, Christian Journalist.

I happened to agree. With the economy the way it is right now, things are rough for people my age, graduating with the degree I will have in four short months.

Now, let's get up to date. In the time since I posted, I was offered a job by The Tuscaloosa News as a reporter. It was a hard decision to make. I had accepted an offer to intern at the Mobile Press-Register and I won't graduate until May. On top of that I was applying for an internship in Boston and pursuing a career in magazines. I wasn't even sure that I wanted to work in newspapers anymore. 

But when they made the offer I began to think about how tough things were going to get after graduation, how while that Mobile internship will look great on my resume, it didn't guarantee a job. These people were doing just that. 

So I quit my job at the  Alabama Alumni Magazine and am currently a full time-staff writer at the News as well as a full-time student at the University of Alabama.

And it's a good job. The people here in the newsroom are amazing and everyone at the paper is super nice and have been very friendly to this young journalist. Also, the News publishes Tuscaloosa magazine, which provides me a chance to be published in a magazine as well as in the print and online versions of the paper.

God has provided a way for me to try everything I'm interested in at one place, as well as the time to do so in. I'm extremely blessed to have a job before I graduate and a good one at that.

So, from here on out this blog will focus on my (hopefully) budding career as a writer and specifically, a journalist. However, it will still be infused with the occasional poem or prose item I write as well, since I find those to be very important to my becoming a better writer. I will also still post current events items but from a decidedly more journalistic viewpoint.

Check the next post for my first day on the job.