I have always loved television. I love it so much that in high school, I made a decision to pursue it professionally. At the time, I didn't know anything about television, other than the fact that I liked to watch it. To learn more, I took a class in high school at Columbia College Chicago, I browsed the internet and read anything I can find about the subject at Borders.
At the time, my resources were limited. The internet was still a baby and no one had even heard of Google. Domain names came a dime a dozen. I didn't know anyone in the industry and I didn't know anyone who knew anyone in the industry. I made the decision to study media at Northern Illinois because it was cheap, far enough away from home but close enough to visit and cable television was included with my dorm room. Cable TV was especially important to me because my mother had never allowed me to have it and as a TV-phile, I didn't want to live another moment without it.
When I graduated from college in 2003, I had no idea how much I didn't know. I was a bright-eyed, arrogant Master's degree-holder with a great apartment and a job at a TV station in Des Moines. So for the last seven years, I have had a number of different jobs in and out of the industry that have taught me how ignorant I am. Worst of all, everything I'm learning now, is a part of the regular curriculum for Columbia College Chicago, a school that now acts as my employer. My job is to speak to students about how fabulous the college is, which serves as a constant reminder of the decision I should have made so many years ago.
My various jobs, articles, books, podcasts, on and off-line social networking groups, classes, workshops and conferences all make me feel better prepared to really break into the world of television. My next step involves a trip to Los Angeles next month to pitch two screenplays I wrote over the course of this year.
One may ask, if I'm so interested in breaking through the small screen, why am I writing for the big one. The answer to that question comes in the next blog post.
