They say, "You can't go home again."
Well, I did.
When I joined the WUSA9 team in October of 2013, it was a homecoming. I am a Fairfax County native, having grown up in Vienna, VA, where my parents and sister still live.
As a kid, I played football and basketball for Vienna Youth Inc. as well as baseball for Vienna Little League. I kept playing those three through high school at George C. Marshall in Falls Church, VA and Langley in Great Falls, VA.
After high school, I drove south, down I-95 until I could ditch the winter coat and settled in Myrtle Beach, SC. Tough life, I know.
There, I attended Coastal Carolina University, home of the Chanticleers. For those of you who do not know what a Chanticleer is, it's a proud and fierce fighting rooster. For those who still do not know what a Chanticleer is, Google it.
At CCU, I studied History and Journalism... and the beach.
A love for storytelling lead to a career in journalism. WPDE NewsChannel 15 in Myrtle Beach gave me my first break. WPDE was home. I learned from passionate and generous journalists.
I also learned that TV news is hardly glitz and glamour. It's certainly not manual labor, but it's still challenging work. So, love what you do or, at the very least, find something, anything, in what you do that you love.
Stories I covered on South Carolina's Grand Strand and in the Pee Dee regions were diverse: wild fires, hurricanes, presidential campaigns and debates and statewide political scandals that became national headlines.
WPDE was an invaluable experience. So was my next stop: KXAS in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, where I was able to compare Carolina BBQ to Texas BBQ. Oh yeah, and grow as a journalist.
At KXAS, I tapped into a wealth of experience. The reporters, photographers, anchors and producers I worked with had, literally, hundreds of collective years of news experience. They are true pros.
Much like stories in the DMV, the stories I covered in DFW would make national headlines:
-- A tornado outbreak in April of 2012 when at least 17 confirmed tornadoes damaged or destroyed nearly 1,000 properties and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
-- The West, TX fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people and injured more than 225.
-- The deadly West Nile Virus epidemic during the summer of 2012.
-- 2011 MLB World Series at the Ballpark in Arlington.
-- 2012 and 2013 NCAA Football BCS Cotton Bowls at Cowboys Stadium.
-- Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Cowboys Stadium.
Of course, living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area left me in a precarious position. You see, I'm a Redskins fan, through and through. Dallas, as you know, is Cowboys country. Enough said.
But, I will say this: there is no place like Texas.
Throughout my news career, I have been a reporter, anchor, photographer and producer but the highlights have always been the people I have had the good fortunate of meeting.
I love all things Redskins, Orioles and Wizards, anything that gives me an adrenaline rush - from mountain biking to skydiving - and to go places that push the limits of comfort - from exotic restaurants to foreign countries.
But as long as I'm on a beach and well-fed, I won't complain... too much.
