This whole thing started on an old airport tarmac in Sitka. Actually, it started more than 10 years ago when I graduated high school and dreamed of becoming a physical education teacher. But that dream didn't last long when I stepped back and realized both my sisters and their husbands were teachers. I just had the itch for doing something different in my family.
And so I became a sports writer.
My teeth were cut at the Western Herald, the newspaper at Western Michigan University. A few good clips earned an internship at my hometown newspaper, the Kalamazoo Gazette. That lasted about three months. I luckily scored an entry level job up here at the Anchorage Daily News and worked there as an Alaska sports guru for about six years, covering anything from the Iditarod to high school gymnastics to people who caught big fish.
Now that the newspaper industry is being flushed down the toilet thanks to a variety of reasons other than the ever-so-growing internet, I figured a career change would be the perfect move.
So here I am, getting my masters degree at UAS, teaching eighth graders in South Anchorage and accomplishing a dream I put on hold long ago. Yeah, I miss the thrill of hitting my deadline every night, or sometimes every other night, and telling other people's stories. But those feelings have been replaced with sounds of the school bell, challenging myself in ways I never expected and helping young people learn how to tell their own stories.
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