Go Beach!

I am beyond excited to announced that I have accepted an assistant professor position in California State University Long Beach’s journalism and public relations department! I will move out West this summer and begin teaching at the university in August. I’m so grateful for my time at Augusta University, but anyone close to me knows that California has been a dream for a long time. I am so excited to make it my reality! GO BEACH!

I flew out in early November to meet the faculty and tour the department, and I have never felt such a quick connection to a position or group of people than I did while at CSULB. I am all set to teach Understanding News Media, Media Design, and Research Methods in the Fall, which means that I will be packing my things into heart-shaped boxes and embarking on a 2,370-mile move across the country at the end of July. Time has never moved so slowly, but it seems to be speeding up each day.

Elephant in the room — I’ve been MIA on this blog for a long time. So long that I am a completely different person from the one who threw herself behind it 12 years ago. I’ve shed and grown an entirely new skin in those years and I feel free from the person I was, as well as the people with whom I surrounded myself. I thought of beginning a fresh blog, free of past toxins, but this page has really become a diary of sorts. If anything, let this stand as a testament of how far I have come. Erasing the past has never been my goal, but I will be happy to bury those posts in the archives. There is no love lost.

I hope that reviving this blog will help me to look back at this journey and the early steps within it, which truly feels like the very beginning of the rest of my life.

In a reminder that we all create our own luck, Roman Philosopher Seneca is first credited with the lines, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” And preparation is pivotal, of that there is no doubt. But at a recent dinner with friends I was reminded that readiness is also key.

California has been a dream of mine for a long time, but I finally feel ready.

My first opportunity to pursue this dream came in late 2019, when I flew to San Fransisco to interview for a position that no longer existed by the time I exited the plane. After an additional year on the job market (throughout a global pandemic), I was grateful to obtain a position at Augusta University. My time in the South has been largely isolating and unromantic, but I’ve grown so much studier throughout my time here. I found my footing in Georgia, grew sturdier, healthier, and more prepared. I feel ready to succeed in California in a way that I was not five, three, or even two years ago. The opportunity arose, I was prepared, and I was finally ready to seize it. And now here I sit — the luckiest girl in the world!

Patience has never been my greatest virtue, but persistence may be.

Thank you for taking my hand on this wild and crazy journey toward the rest of my life. Get ready for ups, downs, and all the drag. LET’S GOOOOO!!!!