More about me...

Good morning! Apologies once again for being so hit-or-miss with the blog recently. It was a part of my routine the first week, and so I was able to do a fairly good job of keeping it updated. But my routine was obliterated last week, and with it went the regularity of my posts. I will certainly try to do a better job this week!

Since I've got a few moments before heading out to tackle today's assignment, I thought I'd post. Without a solid idea in mind to write about, I thought I'd take a few moments to tell you a little bit more about myself. If you'd rather not hear me drone on about myself for a few paragraphs, now would be a good time to tune out.

I was born and raised here in Eastern North Carolina -- Wilson, to be exact. At a young age, I figured out I wanted to be a television reporter. I can even remember some nights of sitting up in my room and pretending to anchor a newscast (make your own inferences about my social life as a 7-year-old here...). But I've always had a passion for writing and -- for better or for worse -- a craving for other people's attention. Television seemed to be the perfect fit for both.

In high school I began working in the Sports department at the Wilson Daily Times. With no television stations near Wilson at which to intern, the newspaper seemed like a logical choice to get some professional writing experience. It just so happened that a program through the State Department of Labor and the Wilson County Schools provided an internship (or "apprenticeship" as the program called it) at the Daily Times.

It was a great experience, and really fed my passion for writing. While I started out writing "Local Briefs" and inputting youth soccer scores, I was eventually given a crack at covering local sporting events. By the time I left the Daily Times, I was covering the best sport in the land -- ACC basketball -- on some very hallowed ground. I've had the opportunity to cover basketball games at the Dean Dome and Cameron Indoor Stadium, and let me tell you -- there's nothing like it. Part of me very much envies the folks who get paid to sit in the best seats in the house -- and then get paid to tell other people about the experience. (Thanks to tarheelblue.com for that picture of the greatest place on earth...)

When it came time to head off to college, I went to the only place I'd ever wanted to go -- CAROLINA! While there I did some freelance newspaper reporting, I wrote for The Carolina Alumni Review magazine and I reported and anchored for Carolina Week, UNC's student news program. All three provided great experiences, but Carolina Week most certainly provided the best training I could ever ask for. It prepared me for my current job with WNCT better than anything I could imagine -- and it was fun, too! Anchoring those live newscasts for a year with Shaheen Syal (my co-anchor, who I absolutely adore) was one of the most fun, rewarding and challenging experiences of my college days. I find myself missing those times and that fun more and more these days. Shaheen now works as a producer for an up-and-coming show on FOX 50 in Raleigh -- and you can expect big things from her. She's one of those people that just has "it" -- that magical ability to succeed at anything.

I made a lot of great friends at CW, and it's been fun to watch us all go our separate ways and work our way into professional television. I can't wait to see where we all are in another five years. And while they deserve much more than a single sentence, the professors and teachers who worked with us at CW are world-class -- and any success that any of us come across will be owed in large part to them.

I was fortunate to make a lot of tremendous friends while in Chapel Hill. I was even more fortunate to foster very, very deep relationships with a handful of fantastic people. I'd say I have a very tight-knit group of friends -- and moving away from them has been the most challenging and difficult experience I've faced yet. When I was a freshman, I was very fortunate, because a group of older guys took me under their wing. It became my mission to do the same thing -- and hopefully, I've had the same kind of impact on the younger guys as the older guys had on me. My two closest friends -- Dave and Matt -- are both seniors at UNC now. It's hard to believe they'll be graduating in a matter of months. But they are a pair of exceptional fellas, and I'm very proud of both of them. They both have big dreams, and I have no doubt they'll acheive them. (By the way, that picture is of the three of us on a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains.)

Moving away and working for WNCT, like I said, has been very challenging -- but it's been quite rewarding as well. I've learned and grown a lot in the five months that I've been here, and I'm sure I will continue to in the weeks and months ahead.

So that was probably more about me than you ever cared to know. But that's who you're dealing with each time you read this blog, or when you watch WNCT's newscasts. All of us who work in this business are normal folks -- we just have an abnormal job. We have hopes, dreams, fears and opinions just like anyone else. I've been able to share a few of mine with you through this blog, and I truly hope I'll get the chance to hear more about yours as well!

Thanks for stopping by ... and I'll do my best to have a topic to cover next time, so you won't be subjected to hearing more about me. Do you have something you'd like to hear about? Click the "Comments" button below and let me hear your voice!