Role Model?

I remember when I was in high school and people would come in and talk to us. They’d push going to college, which I did. They’d talk about what they did in life and how they became successful. Now, it’s my turn to be that person.

I can remember how mature and old (dare, I say) those people were. I’m going to talk to students at my alma mater tomorrow. Of course, it’ll be a mere twelve hours after the Browns game. Oh, did I also mention that I have to spend time at work as well?

People love to hear that you work in television but I always downplay that fact. Working is television news isn’t exactly an uplifting job. You have to report about the good and the bad. A lot of time it’s the bad. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to call a family after one of their loved ones died to see if they wanted consent to an interview. Many times they will tell you they aren’t interested, either politely or with a gentle slamming down of the phone. Many other times they’ll be interested in talking about their loved ones life. Different people, different decisions.

Sure, you get to work with people who you see on television. People who have the same problems as you and me. People who put their pants on one leg at a time. There’s a mystique about them though. Viewers feel like they know the people on television but they’ve never met them so when they do, many people are impressed that they’re not 2-D but actually 3-D.

The same issues that happen in any other workplace happen in a television newsroom. There’s talk around the proverbial watercooler. There’s storytelling in the halls. There are cliques. Everything you know to happen other places happen at a television station but sometimes with a lot more intensity. That is what happens when you put a lot of creative people under one roof, I’m surprise more tops of stations don’t blow off from it.

So what will I tell these students who will one day help shape the world for generations to come? I’ll hammer home the fact they need to get higher learning. It helps for so many different reasons. There’s the educational side, the social aspect and how it helps you mature. I’ll also say they have to know computers, webpage design and least of all, typing. I learned how to type by myself. I took typing in high school but I cheated and looked at the keys. Yes, they didn’t take them off. I hunted and pecked with one finger. I suffered through college trying to finish term papers quickly. Now, typing is essential to what I do and even if you surf the Internet. It’s the way we interact with computers so we can interact with the rest of the world.

I’ll tell them if they go to college, take business classes. Almost everything you do in life has a business angle to it. It’s bartering in many cases to get the desired outcome you want. I learned so much in my Organizational Behavior and Business Behavior classes. Still after college I didn’t know much even after those course. A lot of what you learn comes after you get your degree.

So tomorrow, I get to stand up in front of a lot of students, talk to them about television, an exciting industry that’s trying to keep up with the times and not go the way of newspapers. We’re adapting to TiVo, DVRs, Internet viewing, cyber newsgathering and changing ways people get their information.

Sure, I’ll get the question about how do I become a news anchor. Sure, I’ll answer it with the response of “a lot of hard work”. By the way, so few people come out of college and become a news anchor. You have to do a lot of reporting to get elevated to that rank. You also have to add in timing, the right boss and a lot of luck.

Tomorrow, it’s my turn to hopefully be the role model that I looked up to when I was in the same school some 15+ years ago.

Oh, this probably means I have to dress up again…