I guess then, I’ll count myself fortunate to consider 2010 a magnificent year that built off an excellent 2009. The greatest challenges and new horizon beckons next May when I graduate from Marquette, but rather than look ahead to the looming prospect of the job market, I’ll get up on the soapbox and actually file a blog entry (hey, it’s been since August. I must have been busy or, per usual, slacking on blogging).Consider at the start of the year I had a new opportunity moving up to an editorial position at The Marquette Tribune. And 12 months later, that’s being repeated. Just take the assistant tag off assistant news editor and there’s my new position. That is both an opportunity and a challenge to make this college newspaper even better than it was this year, and I welcome it with open arms.
Consider I was so disillusioned with the direction of motorsports after a frustrating 2009, even after the most amount of coverage I had done on location. And then the chance to contribute to a completely new endeavor, the MichelinAlley.com blog, came about, and I had to take it with open arms. Now I was part of both a wide-ranging organization and a team of about eight at the track at each American Le Mans Series weekend. I felt a commitment to wanting to do the best for the whole, and still getting the chance to write, post photos and videos, and increase the social media blitz was fantastic.
Consider I sought a secondary income during the school year after ending my three-year tenure at the Phonathon, and the opportunity to intern at The Business Journal came about. That’s a rash way of looking at it on the surface. I learned so much from my time there, besides just the clips and the way of business reporting, but life in a real-world newsroom and how to interact with another awesome group of people. They go through interns like toilet paper, but to feel at home in just a four-month stint showed they could make a temporary worker feel like family. I can’t thank them enough.
And throughout the year I loved spending so much time traveling. Eight ALMS races (Sebring, Long Beach, Mazda Raceway in Monterey, Salt Lake City, Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, Elkhart Lake, and Atlanta), plus the Indianapolis 500, Arizona, San Diego, and stops in the Las Vegas and Detroit airports. I might be missing a couple places.
That’s all well and good, but such accomplishments and achievements might make me seem like an arrogant prick. I’d want someone to throw rocks at my head if I ever came off that way, because my goal throughout all of this is to remain grounded and humble at all times. It’s so vital to appreciate what you have, and I regret if I take any of it for granted.
So as 2011 beckons, I have only questions to ask. How can I get better at the things I’m involved with? How do I improve the organizations and their missions? What’s next? Can I get a job after graduating?
I’m just motivated to keep improving myself, and try to embody the “Can’t Stop” anthem played by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Except without doing all the crazy stuff they have in their video.
Hopefully I’ll update the blog more in 2011, but who knows. As for 2010, I’m out. Cheers.
