How It Started
I was starstruck during a fourth-grade school visit from WLOX Biloxi morning show anchors and enthralled by Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008), which I still own on DVD. Column opportunities in late elementary, mid high school, and college taught me print wasn’t my calling, but in eleventh grade, I took the seven-person broadcasting class in pursuit of an easy A. I earned the A and learned what I wanted to do with my professional life. There’s nothing like Texas high school football. But before I knew that, I was shooting my own school’s games in my home state of Louisiana for extra credit and learning how to use a camcorder. Making a miniature newscast happen for the handful of people who cared to watch in homeroom set me searching for a small undergrad communications degree program to study under and brilliant, fervent journalism outlet to work for, which I found in my time at Loyola and its Maroon. My fate was sealed when I learned I didn’t HAVE to MMJ to work in TV news. Two internships and one supermarket stint later I moved to Southeast Texas, and I’m enamored by the warmth and resilience of the people, the cultural vibrancy, and the novelty that each day brings.