Taking on New Adventures

This month marks 20 years since I made the decision to move away from home and join CNN. 20 years!

How did I get there? And how did I get to where I am now? It’s long and probably not interesting to most but here goes.

I was working at a local station in Memphis and really loving my job. I saw a lot of opportunity for growth and a future of moving up and growing there. However, management had another idea. After working overtime, all of the shifts that cost me a social life and dealing with some bullying from the higher-ups, I made the decision to start looking elsewhere. I found a job on TVJobs.com with CNN, sent in my resume and waited.

A few days later I got an email scheduling a call with the hiring manager. The call went great, or so I thought. A few days later, I received a call from the manager saying I didn’t get the job but that there were other openings at the company and would I mind him sending my resume around? Of course, I said yes and had another phone interview scheduled within days. Again, I thought that one went well and I received the job offer the next week.

I moved to Atlanta on October 15, 1999, got settled in my studio apartment on the 28th floor and managed to figure out where the grocery store and other key places I needed to be were. On October 18, I walked into CNN, got my name badge and started orientation.

In my 14 years at the company, I managed to get a few promotions, work with anchors in the studio and in the field and travel to some places I didn’t even know existed. I was able to make some of my best friends through this job, some really great friends and some solid acquaintances. I also was able to meet some of the most influential people in the world!

Do I miss it? A little less every day. Especially now as the news environment is just not the same as what I signed up for. Do I miss my people? 100%. But we all grow and change, and part of my growth was venturing out into a new (or 3, now) career and trying to find my forever.

Which brings me to today. Not only is it 20 years since I started at CNN, but it’s 6 years since I decided to leave and bring my talents to New Orleans. And for that, I’m grateful because, without CNN, I would’ve never had the courage or confidence in starting over at almost 39 in a new city with a new career.