Blue-Collar Journalist
I have always worked a blue-collar job. Growing up in Michigan in a middle-class family, without a college degree, there weren’t many other choices. Whatever you want to call it — blue-collar, production, factory, warehouse — it all came naturally to me, and I was good at it.
I’ve stocked shelves at a grocery store, assembled fuel lines for cars, printed and bound books, worked construction jobs and paved with brick . I’ve worked in warehouses, for vending services, and for defense contractors constructing night vision devices. And it was with all this experience I found myself working for an FAA repair station in Miami repairing aircraft parts such as starters, air cycle machines and valves, waiting for that record contract in a world designed to stagnate blue-collar workers with dreams as big as mine.
Through the jobs I’ve worked, I was trained and certified as an NDT Level II technician. I worked on machinery that were bigger than some homes. I assembled night vision that would be used by local law enforcement and military. I dis-assembled and repaired aircraft parts on some of the very planes you may have flown in with comfort. Any one of those jobs are easily worthy of making a career out of. But as exciting and fulfilling and lucrative as those jobs can be, I always felt like something was missing.
For many, many years I used music and playing in a band as a means to fill a void in my life. Writing and playing music allowed me to give voice to my emotions and to express myself.Like anybody who has played in a band, I had big dreams of being a Rockstar. After many failed attempts at different bands of different genres, in different cities, I decided that maybe I should “grow up” and focus on a future of family. I started to make plans of a life and kids with the girl I was engaged to, which was wild because up until that point kids and marriage were nowhere on my radar. Unfortunately, it became clear that my fiancé and I had very different plans for what we wanted for our futures and we broke-up. Now I was lost. No band, no relationship, I was reeling to find my direction and purpose.
A positive side-effect of my former relationship was the development of an obsession with political news, specifically The Young Turks. Admittedly, I didn’t start seriously following politics until the 2012 cycle. I knew enough to know that I leaned left, but I didn’t know much about policy substance, or what was really going on in the world. Once I started paying attention I was hooked, and political news became my drug. I found myself spending my entire day listening to podcasts and videos of both mainstream and independent media journalists. There was also this involuntary desire to engage in passionate conversations and debates about policy and world events. As corny as it may sound, I was beginning to hear a calling. Although the job I was working was worthy of a career -I had a good position within in the company, I was making decent money, and I was in line to take partial control when the owner retired, I felt stagnate and static. Meanwhile, this passion in me for politics and debating policy and opinion was becoming stronger and stronger until finally, I could no longer ignore its intent— this is what I was meant to do.
The things in our lives that we are truly passionate about are the things that consume all of our time and energy. Around the right people I can discuss Star Wars theory, lore, and the expanded universe for hours on end. Hockey is another topic that can easily consume hours of conversation; I can talk stats, trades, highlights, and it never feels like I have had my fill. Now, political discussion has taken its place among the things that drive me and I knew that I needed to fuel this growing fire and pursue this as a career. As I began planning this dramatic change in my life, I could feel my heart racing and the adrenaline pumping and I knew I was on to the right path. Of course there were doubts and anxiety and I would say things to myself like, “I’m too old to be going back to school.” Or, “How do you know this will work?” But with the help of my building adrenaline, I could not be thrown off my path, and the timing of everything was about as good as I could have hoped for. My lease was up in a couple months and I had been yearning to get out of south Florida for years; the political climate in the country is buzzing right now, and by the time I complete my degree, we will be amidst another presidential election cycle — what could be more exciting for a political nerd in the journalism field who has just completed their degree?
Truthfully, I don’t know how this path will unfold, or where I fit into the world of journalism. But I do know is this… I want to do something in this life that means something, I want to expose injustice and lies, and I believe that if I can reach just person and help them understand what’s really happening, that will be my victory.
