It took me six years to find my real passion.
I thought I had everything figured out in high school (what high schooler doesn’t think that?) when I found the school newspaper and broadcast news. I did everything I could to gain experience and eventual admittance to the University of Missouri’s prestigious School of Journalism.
Once there, the determination didn’t wane, until my senior year, when I got a bit burned out. I took some advertising classes to fulfill my electives and loved them. The professor was encouraging and the class interesting. However, after graduation, it seemed all I was “qualified” to do was work in the news industry.
My first job was as an education reporter for a newspaper in Southeast Missouri. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it. My fiancé at the time (now husband) got a job in San Antonio and we moved. There I was an education reporter for an even smaller paper. It was at that paper that I got fired for sticking to my journalistic ethics. I then worked for the FOX station in San Antonio. The hours were awful, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
After nearly two years of those hours, my husband and I knew it was time for a change. He wanted to go to graduate school and I was ready to be closer to our families. We packed up and moved back to Missouri. Where I was unemployed for about three months. During those three months, I did a lot of soul searching. I made lists about what I liked and didn’t in each previous job and looked for trends.
Want to read the rest? Go to Jessica Malnik’s blog. She has a whole written and video series on Following Your Passion. Enjoy!