One Of The Blessings Of This Crazy TV Business

I started in TV when I was 22 years old.  Fresh out of college.  I moved to a small town in Idaho.  In fact, I'd never heard of Idaho Falls until I flew myself in for an interview.  The beginning was rough-starting a new career, dealing with the nerves of being live on TV for the first time and living in a town of 50,000 (I grew up and went to school in a couple of the biggest cities in the country).  But you know what made it so worth it?  Yes, of course fulfilling a lifelong dream, and telling amazing stories but more importantly-the friends I met at along the way. 

For the most part, these friendships have blossomed out of the newsrooms I've worked in.  It's pretty incredible-you get close with your coworkers fast in a business where you move every two to three years and you parachute into towns not knowing a soul.  We've grown up together--from our first on-air mistakes, to our first nasty viewer letter, our first awards, our worst live shots, our best live shots, we've endured fantastic bosses and not so fantastic bosses.   More importantly, we've gone through some of life's greatest moments together-I've watched my friends transition from single ladies to married women-and childless party animals to moms.  I've been in their weddings, thrown baby showers and I feel so blessed to have them in my life.  This whole TV friendship thing is a blessing and a curse.  You grow this incredible bond with people and then you have to move (hopefully I won't have to move ever again :)).  I have friends in New York, Denver, San Diego, Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City, Boise, Spokane, Indianapolis, Burlington, Vermont, Atlanta, Florida, Louisiana (I'm sure I'm missing a lot).  I just returned from visiting my friend Tori who reported and anchored with me in Spokane.  Last year I was in her wedding-this year she's preparing to pop out a baby.  All of the sudden we live more than a thousand miles apart-and just like the other friends I've met along the way-I miss her all the time.  But one thing I've learned to do (maybe even better than reporting) is stay in touch.  We've watched each other grow up-pretty soon it'll be time to watch our kids grow up.  Crazy, right?