It has been nearly four months since I left my apartment with my family to begin my broadcast journalism career in the border town of Laredo.
My days quickly filled with work. Interviewing. Editing. Producing. Anchoring. It’s everything I have dreamed about and the best part of it all- is that get paid for it.
Starting in a small town
I remember walking into my new apartment where I would be staying and breaking down in tears.
I looked around, lay on the carpet and just stared at the white ceiling for the rest of the evening. I stared and stared, thinking about my family back home and wondering if they would be OK. I called my mom that night telling her that I wanted to go back home. She assured me that they would be OK and to focus on my future.
I knew that in order to start my broadcast career, I needed to move to a small town. All my professors and mentors reminded me of it each time I asked for advice on applying for jobs. I knew this.
Only, I wasn’t emotionally prepared.
Did I make the right decision?
I wasn’t here to visit and that alone scared me. I was here to stay. Gone were the days where I would lay on the floor at my mom’s apartment and do homework every Sunday. No longer was I bound to the structures of a college student. I was on my own now.
Some days are better than others. Sometimes the silence you wake up to and go to sleep with hits you. The nights become sleepless and cold. There’s times where I doubt myself if I made the right decision. On the drive to work, I sometimes question myself, will this pay off in the end? Did I make a mistake leaving my family behind?
I could have easily taken the assignments editor position being offered to me and be close to my family. But, deep down, I knew that I wouldn’t have been happy watching the reporters come and go, while I just sat at a desk listening to a radio scanner.
Learning about myself
Sometimes, it gets lonely and the only friend I can turn to in this town is a book. To past time, I’ve up picked running, learned to cook a thing or two and found out who I really am.
I’ve come to accept that I might be alone, but I am not lonely. I have many friends back home who are cheering for me. My family is prouder than ever to see me fulfill my childhood dream. Sometime I forget this.
Each night, I go back and review the newscast and see that little boy who once dreamed of day being on television and it brings a smile to my face. My passion for news has kept me going each and every day. I don’t give up easily. I’m already in the game. To quit now, would be to waste the thousands of hard earned dollars I spent on my college tuition.
Looking back, I am glad my mom convinced me to stay. She knows how much I’ve wanted this and anytime I feel low I just remember she’s only six hours away.
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