Well, this is it. This is my final-ever blog post written for WVU News and one of my final assignments for West Virginia University overall.
I have been part of this university for the past 6 years, since the fall of 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I worked my way through the standard classes, the beginnings of the Reed College of Media, and when I first sat in on a taping of WVU News, I was so enamored with the studio production, the anchoring set, and even the people producing the show back then. I met some of my good friends back when I first did that.
After working through the prerequisites, I finally had the chance to take part in this show in 2023. I was the health/medical reporter then, and to be honest, most of my stuff wasn’t as good compared to the others in the class.
But just the next year, I found myself back again, only this time as a videographer and editor. All I did was shoot the video, help the reporters edit, and make sure everything looked and sounded the best it could. This was when I found the spot I had been looking for. I had found the passion I wanted to pursue using my degree.
But just as I found that out, I was done; I was a graduating senior after that semester. I had thought about it, and I made the decision to stick around after all. I was going to get my master's degree. So I began taking a break to sort out the grad school stuff, but later on, the bug caught me again.
It was just last year that I was enrolled to work on two shows in two roles: I was to be a videographer for West Virginia Today and be the teaching assistant for Mountaineer Playbook. It was incredibly stressful, I will admit; it took a deep toll on my personal life over those months, but I did learn a lot about what I must do to keep my balance of life afloat.
Now, as this last semester of my graduate school program comes to an end, I want to say that WVU News and the other student-produced shows at this university were one of the most enlightening experiences of my entire life. I learned so much in the world of journalism, traveled to places I thought I’d never get to go to, and did things I never thought I could do. I got to meet Kathy Mattea, I got sprayed with beer at a local brewery, and I even got to go down onto the famous Mountaineer Field that I had grown up watching my team play on and win over the last 24 years.
I leave now with these words: Do not be afraid to venture and explore; you never know what you’ll find and learn. As I take the skills necessary to help make an Emmy-award-winning newscast into the world with me, it makes me wonder: Where will I go next, and what am I going to do in this world?
I wish everyone the very best in life, and I hope you all enjoyed the show. Because I sure did.