I’ve always been someone who liked to live inside my comfort zone. I came to a college only two and a half hours away from my hometown. I chose two majors – public relations and English – I knew I would be successful in. I continued a life I knew I could be comfortable in, despite college being a time when many people test their limits and push through boundaries they never thought they could get past. I didn’t think I could do it — be brave and take the leap into the unknown — but sometimes the unknown sneaks up on you. I think that’s when you surprise yourself the most.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a reporter. I would watch the news and be dazzled by the news anchor’s charisma, and when I listened to the radio, the voice behind the stereo was always entrancingly calm. That dream faded though, as I thought myself too awkward for the job. Add in performance anxiety and stage fright to the mix, and I forgot all about my journalistic aspirations. I felt like I was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of person. Of course, all of this changed when I toured the Digital Media Center inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium at The University of Alabama.
It was then when I met my soon-to-be boss, Stan Ingold, and the whole crew at Alabama Public Radio. They told my group about how the news station runs and about the intern program — which, believe you me, was (and is) incredible. Ingold gave out business cards, and we left.
I was immediately struck by that old dream of mine. I think I emailed Ingold within the week of the tour, desperately wanting to intern with the news station. I remember getting an email back from him, asking for my schedule for the spring semester, and my hours didn’t line up. Maybe next semester. I didn’t get an email back, and I was a little crushed. (Granted, I learned later that he gets so many emails that he just missed my last response.) Here’s where my first lesson outside of my comfort zone comes in: Your first rejection isn’t going to be your last, so get over it.
I emailed Ingold again in the spring semester, hoping Alabama Public Radio would maybe have a position open in the summer. My ego was still a little bruised, but I knew I wanted this internship. Within no time, I was interviewed by the team at APR and had my first summer internship.
That summer I dealt with a lot of experiences outside of my comfort zone. The toughest experience? That would have to be the recording studio. The lesson I learned? You’ve gotta fake it until you make it.
Listening to myself now, you wouldn’t believe that I’d ever been nervous about recording a news spot, but I’m not going to let anyone listen to my first attempts at recording that summer. Public relations and English had not prepared me with a radio voice. My first news spot took 45 minutes to record, for a 45-second piece. Fast forward to August, however, and I was writing my first feature that would eventually make me an award-winning journalist.
Now, a year into my internship at Alabama Public Radio, I no longer feel like a fish out of water, and as a PR/English literature student, I honestly should feel I’m swimming on dry land. But I took a leap of faith into the previously unknown world of public radio and came out on the other side with an incredible skill set that many students in my field don’t have.
I’ve demo-ed homes damaged by floods; I’ve experienced the spectacular oddity of a nationwide cat show; I’ve had a conversation that includes the phrase “Eggbeater Jesus”; and I have more to come that will keep broadening my world view.
So, my (not so) unbiased and completely sound final lesson I learned from outside of my comfort zone?
Experience public radio.
You won’t be sorry.
