Thinking about thinking about a new focus?

Lately I've had job-searching on the mind and I'm starting to change my focus (actually, I'm thinking about starting to think about thinking about changing my focus!) I'm feeling like I should direct myself towards the internet as well as tv.

I feel like the opportunity on-line is huge. Not only that, but there also seems to be more chance to take creative control and it seems to me like the quality online varies, so it's totally do-able right out of school.

Here's something that helped spark these thoughts. I'm really excited about baseball season, so I was at the Met's website and I stumbled upon "Next Stop: Shea." I'm not sure what you'd call this (a vlog? a webisode?) but it's similar to a package, just online. I really feel like I could put together a piece with just as much quality on any subject (especially since the host looks like he's on our Coach's Corner set, but just switched the Titan uniform with Mets uniforms.)

This is all just something else to think about I suppose...

This week in broadcasting...

This week I anchored for The County Line. We did our show live during half-time of the men’s PAC basketball game, which was broadcast live over the internet! It was really fun to get back to anchoring and we showed my Taser package again. It was also good practice because we had to read from hard copy scripts since there wasn’t a teleprompter set up down in the gym. I think it all turned out pretty good.

We also had the first meeting of the Future Media Professionals. Our fabulous president Stevi Nelson has really gotten the club going. I think it’ll be good for the younger kids to keep up with and build on. We’re hoping to use the club as another way to network and share information and tips among students with similar goals. Hopefully it’ll prove to be quite helpful.

Spring break is coming up in a week. I’m really excited, despite my lack of amazing plans. I’m going to use it as time to catch up on the little things I need to do before graduation.

When I grow up...

I still use that phrase all the time. “When I grow up, I’m gonna….” But it meant more ages and ages ago, when a little Liz roamed the earth, wanting to do and be everything! It seems like every week I wanted to be something new. It’s hard to even remember them all, but here are a few of the biggest:

I’ve always loved writing and used to want to write plays or books. Some of my most famous works include the play that my fourth grade class acted out, “Tommy Tomato,” in which a journalist goes all around town reporting on a giant tomato that’s attacking the town. Or you may have heard of my first novel, “All These Rabbits,” based on the true story of my best friend’s rabbit’s babies.

I wanted to be the first woman President for a while (around when I was president of my student council and thought I was powerful.)

I wanted to be Lois Lane and carry a cool brief case with a big notepad.

There was the archeologist phase, back when the rock tumbler was cool and I collected gemstones.

I was obsessed with weather for a while and wanted to be a weather forecaster. Not necessarily a “weather girl,” but I liked extreme weather and clouds.

Then of course there was always the beauty queen thing. I remember watching Miss America and Miss USA with my family and performing my walk and wave for them. That’s a scary one.

After seeing behind the scenes at The Today Show for the first time way back in middle school, I thought I would love to be a TV producer of some kind. That morphed into wanting to be a music producer or manager. I actually almost went to college for music business management, but thankfully I realized early on that wouldn’t work.

I know there are a lot more, and I’m hoping that when my dad reads this (because he always does) maybe he’ll remember a few others to tell me about (and perhaps have a better baby picture for me).

I did not expect this, but a lot of the things I wanted to do when I was little actually correlate quite nicely with what I want to do now. Writing, leading, weather, producing, the cool brief case (every job needs a cool accessory of some sort.) All of it could work in the broadcast communications field.

Now if I could only get “Tommy Tomato” to Broadway…

Life's To Do List

Imagine waking up tomorrow morning in your 70s. What is the one thing you refuse to let yourself miss out on in life and just have to do before you’re gone?

I love how imaginative these past few blogs have been. It’s a nice break from the realistic life planning of most entries. This question made me look into my List of Things To Do Before I Die (yes, I really have one of those.)

My initial reaction to the question was that I hope I had already done everything I wanted to do. I hope by the time I’m 70 I’ve already traveled the world, had a family, accomplished something great in my field, jumped out of a plane, helped save a rainforest, meet royalty.... If I had already accomplished all of that (and more), my wish would be to just be with my family and enjoy my life (which hopefully existed in a beautiful beach front home with a wrap around porch in the south somewhere.)

Maybe that’s avoiding the question, but I really hope to actually live my life. I found this quote from James Dean that I feel is an appropriate way to end this blog:

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”

Small towns are full of character

I went to the New Wilmington Borough Council meeting last night and got a lot more than I expected from it. I realized how much I like small town politics. I think I could really survive in a small market—even enjoy it. I like knowing people and creating relationships with them. I like creating that trust with sources. The police chief gave me my first “off the record” information. It was very flattered that he trusted me with that.

I also just like the council members. Everyone’s a character. There’s the large and in charge president with the authoritative-looking moustache. There’s the pretty, feminine secretary with her rectangular glasses on the tip of her nose. The fun, young, chic parks & pools committee leader. And of course, the always smiling, kind-hearted, streets committee leader. I felt a bit like I had stepped back in time. And since they’re all volunteers, you can really see how they value their town.

I also realized that I would probably get bored with such an atmosphere, but it’s nice to feel like I could really enjoy starting out in a place like that. And the part that is most important to me about this job is the connection with people.

If I had a million dollars...

This week's capstone question is from Mike: "What would you do if you had a million dollars and didn't have to work?"

This question is pretty loaded. I don’t think I have any concept of how much a million dollars really is, so parts of my answer might be too much, but I’m going to go with the “fantasy” part of this week’s question and just pretend it’s all possible.

First off, there are a lot of things I’d pay my family back for. I would love for my dad to not have to work anymore and for my mom’s preschool to get everything it needs. My sister and I could always use a vacation. But those are just the first things that come to mind.

I know that I would still want to have a career. I could never handle having nothing to do. But I think I might feel a little more adventurous with my career choice. I’d choose a job that gave me plenty of time off so that I could travel—or better yet, a job that consisted of traveling. I’d love to do something to help international relations, whether that be something with the government or something with the church. Or just something fun, like using my money put together a travel show that I could host! (I'm thinking--the next Samantha Brown!)


If I had a million dollars, there’d be so much to do! But I don’t think my life would be all that different—there’d just be one less thing to hold me back from doing whatever I want.