When one door closes, another opens A THREAD

This week, I would’ve been in Tokyo, Japan covering life at the Olympics with @BMatheis36 and @RayDunneBTB but instead I’ll be scooping ice cream at the job I’ve had since I was 15.

BUT now I get to say I’ve helped create two @TempleUpdate newsbriefs each week all summer long, something we’ve never done before as an organization. I help write and edit news articles on how @TempleUniv and @PhiladelphiaGov have rolled with the punches of COVID-19.

This past semester, I was living my best life studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland only to come home 2 months early due to COVID-19.

BUT if that never happened, I wouldn’t be able to say everything I just did two tweets ago.

Going into the summer before junior year, I was discouraged that I didn’t get two internships that I wanted so badly. The first was for @WGAL and the second for @Members1stFCU. It wasn’t until @dyl_mndbch encouraged me to email my local newspaper, The Dillsburg Banner.

I got a response a few weeks later telling me I got the internship. Almost all my articles made the front page, I got to explore so much of my town I never knew existed, and I got so much more experience than I expected I would from a small-town newspaper.

Now to this day I make sure to keep in contact with my connection at @WGAL and one day I’m confident a door will open in the future that will lead me back to them—this time with a full-time job attached to it.

Back at the start of freshman year, I missed anchor auditions for @TempleUpdate and was honestly afraid to get involved in other ways. It wasn’t until one of my best friends and roommate @will_bleier took me to a @TheTempleNews meeting, where I learned how to write.

I became even more involved and fell even more in love with writing. The next year, I became the Web Editor and Multimedia Editor for @TheTempleNews. I found my confidence to go back to @TempleUpdate and audition as an anchor for Update Now. I got it.

I became even more involved with Update Now, always itching to write a story. I loved anchoring so much, I wished it was more often then once every two weeks (the same feeling I got once I anchored the live show 1 1/2 years later).

At the start of sophomore year, I still wasn’t nearly as involved in @TempleUpdate as I should have been. It wasn’t until @electric_EELLS, @JakeZebley, and @BMatheis36 almost legitimately had to push me into the studio doors and introduced me to @kba_jr and changed my life.

Each week, I would come to pre-production and legitimately STARE at @kba_jr to give me something to write for the show. It was because of my dedication, my love for writing, and a little bit of luck that I was offered to be a producer the following semester.

Today, I am so proud to say I will be the Supervising Producer of @TempleUpdate, something I honestly didn’t even dream was possible at the start of my freshman year. But look how far I’ve come.

Don’t be discouraged that your path isn’t exactly how you imagined, because trust me, you’ll get to where you want to be. And never forget, when one door closes, another one opens.