Since my arrival at the University of Georgia, I have learned a lot of things about myself. For example, I’ve come to the realization of how different I am from many of my fellow classmates and how little we share. While many of my contemporaries have grown up together on the quiet suburban streets surrounding the Atlanta area, my life has taken me down many different roads.
Like many students here, my mother is an alumnae of UGA. She graduated in 1985, but instead of settling down here in Georgia–as many of the members of her graduating class did–she decided to pursue a career in television news. Her decision led to her moving acrossthecountry. This decision not only changed her life, but also the life of the daughter she was yet to have.
I was born in Phoenix Arizona, while my mom worked morning weather at the local ABC station. Within the first few hours of my birth I was on TV during the midday news. Her co-anchors referred to me as the “latest addition to Arizona's family.” From my first television debut as an infant, I went onto making appearances on my mom's morning show.
As I got older, my mom would take me to work with her more and more. While my classmates were playing on the swings at the local park, I was running tapes to the tape room on my razor scooter, volunteering to pet the animals they brought in on set, and helping out at my mom’s TV live shots; the newsroom was my personal playground.
When I was seven years old, I had my first spot as a kid reporter in Las Vegas for the world premier of “Rugrats in Paris” where I interviewed my first celebrity–actress Susan Sarandon. It was great fun in the newsroom but ended up being hard when we had to move. When I was in the third grade, my mom received the opportunity to work in San Francisco. This was a great chance for her career, but it resulted in us having to leave all of our friends.As an eight year old, thinking about losing all of your friends and having to make new ones in a new place is terrifying. The transition to San Francisco was not the smoothest, but eventually I started to fit in. I also was able to do fun things like fly in the News chopper over the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay.
Surviving middle school was a definite challenge, and, ironically, as soon as I was getting comfortable with my circle of friends, my mother made the decision to move once again–this time across the country. My mom accepted a job at the Weather Channel, forcing me to move to Atlanta, Georgia, right before my freshman year of high school.
Surprisingly, the move to the East Coast was much smoother than our move to California. I guess I was prepared for the worst after our first big move. I immediately took to the Southern hospitality that Georgia offered and fit right in with my freshman class. It was also after the move to Georgia that I realized how well suited I was to the “nomadic lifestyle” of a broadcast journalist. It’s been in the past four years, during my time visiting my mom at The Weather Channel, that I’ve decided that I want to pursue a career in journalism.
While it’s easy for me to say that I’m bitter that I’ve had to sever ties with old friends, I have to admit that moving for my mom’s job has given me more opportunities that some kids my age could never imagine. I’ve been able to score personal tours of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and see the set of SNL up close and personal because of my mom's strong NBC connections. I’ve been able to intern at The Weather Channel and run the teleprompter as an assistant to the OCM’s. Because of my mom’s career, I’ve been able to gain some real insight into the life of a broadcast journalist. Her success and love for her job has inspired me to one day follow in her footsteps.
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