WHERE DO YOU PICTURE YOURSELF IN FOUR YEARS…

a story of jobs past and present

A group of high school journalists came to our station for a tour today. They all crammed into our newsroom for our morning meeting at 9:07. They were students from the local high school who write for the newspaper or do video production. My boss asked them what they all wanted to do, if they wanted to go into journalism or not. About five of the 30 students raised their hands to say, “yes I see my self in the news business.” For the other 25 they had no clue what they wanted to do for a career. Which made me wonder, where did I picture myself in the future when I was in high school? If someone had told me four years ago that I would be working for a TV station hundreds of miles from home, I probably wouldn’t have believed them. Really.

When I was in high school the farthest place I wanted to go to college was BYU. That way I could live at home and commute to Provo. I thought this was the best plan because I would save money and never have to grow up. The farthest away I planned on working was Salt Lake City. I didn’t have high hopes for far away dreams.

Four years ago during my senior year of high school I had just started my first job outside of working for my parents. I worked at Eatza Pizza. It’s a pizza buffet place if you didn’t know. What drew me to the job was the t-shirts they wore. They looked cool. Sad to admit, that’s what I base my judgments about most things on, appearance. Does it look comfortable or not. I didn’t worry about the long hours, smelling like pizza everyday, or gaining weight from eating my favorite chicken alfredo pizza on my 15 minute breaks. Nor did I worry about only earning minimum wage.
Boy was I dumb.

I quit that job within six months and got a job at another pizza place, Domino’s. I worked there FOREVER! – The rest of high school and then summers for my first two years of college. I got to know the place really well. I actually liked going to work and working hard. I learned how to do everything there, except how to deliver pizzas. Even when I turned 21 and was old enough to deliver, and could have taken a pay raise, I didn’t. I stayed inside smelling like pepperoni pizza and melted cheese.

My last summer there I told everyone I wasn’t going to be back for my junior year summer because I was going to get a newspaper internship somewhere. I did get an internship, but not too far away, Roosevelt, Utah two hours from my home town and 30 minutes from Vernal. Wow! I would have never pictured that in high school. I met some great people out there and got used to working for a weekly paper. But it was easy to like it because I was only there for the summer. I wrote some fun stories about a local taxidermist, another about road kill and one about a man who dresses up as Teddy Roosevelt as a career. Good times in Roosevelt.

My final semester of school in Logan, Utah was a great one, I got close to the best grades I’d ever received. All of my homework was combined into one messy folder, and I skipped class more than I ever did during all of college. I worked two jobs, one at the school newspaper and one videotaping the athletic events, and I produced newscasts for aggie television while running media for the LDS Institute. I was busy and I loved it.

Around November I thought I should start applying for REAL jobs. I didn’t want to travel too far, but I was willing to travel out of state. At a football game against Boise State I met some people from a Boise production crew. They seemed pretty nice and told me that I would have a good shot in the business. I liked their attitude and so when a job opening in Boise came up, I applied.

One month later I was interviewing for the job and one month after that I moved into my house in Idaho and was being trained on the job. I would have never guessed I would be bopping along in a major TV station. I almost pinch myself everyday as I skip through the hallways of our station like a little elementary student at school. I don’t’ feel anywhere close to qualified for the job, yet here I am.

So, if you asked me today where I picture myself in four years, I can safely say, I have no idea. I don’t plan too far into the future, mostly just four months. By this summer I’m sure I’ll be sick of this job and wishing I could go on an African Safari or something, but all I can imagine for my future now is hopefully get off of this crazy night shift in a year and moving on to bigger and better things… and possibly more experiences with amazing people.

Setting up this blog thing

((Editor's note: Manette, after you read this blog you may be wondering why you told me about this online posting center.))

Friday, February 15, 2008
10:25 am
So, today I'm signing up for a blog and i have to think of an amazing name cuz, it's gonna stick with my blog forever!
I'm so nervous and don't know what to title it.
This is gonna take me a while. I could write a whole blog just about this.
10:35 am
Ok, so it's been 10 minutes. I know this is lame but I've got to think of something good.
I just browsed through Manette's and some of our mutual friends blogs and they all look fantastic and amazing.
Sigh.
I guess I'll just have to start doing what writers do when this happens... write until something comes out.
Life through the camera lens
Love, life and movin' on
Shoot, shot and sew... (I made up this one cuz I was thinking of basketball, shooting pictures and sewing)
Ranita's grand adventures
Ranita Bonita (ooh, I kinda like that one)
"topic...If you could describe Ranae in one word what would it be?"
(This would all be so much easier if I wasn't home alone trying to think this up. Manette, you never told me about this part of setting up the blog! This is the hardest part. Oh, yeah! You told me I could call you if I had any questions... I'm gonna call you :) Dialling Manette's phone...
10:48 am
She didn't answer. In case you're all wondering... I've heard this is normal for Manette, but this hardly ever happens to me.)
Ok, so here I go again with my list.
p.s. I'll probably never post this blog, it's soo lame.
Seek and ye shall find
Write warrior write
(Ok, just so ya'll know, I have been up for 13 hours now, and I'm kinda not here now.
I think I'll take a nap and finish naming my blog later)
Ok, think I've got it... but it's pretty cheezy cuz I try not to put my name into things like this.
Random thoughts of Ranae
Ranita's randomness
Ranita's big list
Ranita's ramblings
Ranita the rambling writer
11:06 am
I really just want to be done already.
Ranita takes a dip
Ranita writes a bit
Ranita writes a lot
Ranita talks a lot
Ranita takes a shot
Ready, aim, Fire
Shoot there it is
Freak! I'm a blogger!
Ranita the frogger
Frogger the blogger
ranita in the seat
ram-a-lama bang bang!
things to share (I like this one)
hop, duck and snap
snap, hop and BANG!
snap, crop, BANG!
Snapshots ( I think I like this best! )
Snapshots worth saving
snapshots worth sharing
Snapshots
ok, it's now 11:16 and I'm done
Almost an hour!
Ok, so now it's taking forever to set up
we'll see how this goes.
So, believe it or not, but when I was choosing a template for my page--I chose the template that looked the most like me... and guess what the name of it was????SNAPSHOT!
Wow, this is creepy!
So, here we go... for lack of a good first blog, here's this one. I'm gonna post it.
My first adventure on this new blogging trip!
p.s. I just ran this through spell check and I only misspelled one word.. creepy! That must mean I'm a good speller.. maybe.. maybe not.
--OK BYE.

p.s. After I signed in... I found out you can re-name your blog anytime... which I figured of course.. but I'm just a perfectionist who wants things to be perfect :)