Hometown is kind of a strange term for me. I was one of those people who comes from a family that ended up moving around quite a bit when we were growing up. The concept of a hometown is truly foreign to me, to be honest. The closet we ever came to having a place we could call home was this town in Kansas. We didn’t even live there long enough to call it our hometown, we just lived around there enough it was the closet we had. That changed when we moved to Nevada.
I have mixed feelings about moving away from a town I despised, going to college, starting a career and then returning years later. On the on hand, it’s been nice rubbing my success into the noses of those still here living their lives, on the other hand, it’s been kind of miserable coming back. Not to mention, I was mostly kidding about the noses thing. Honestly really it’s more like just pointing out to those who either never believed I would amount to anything, that I did, or showing those who always believed in me they were right to do so.
The hardest part was leaving behind what was the best job I have ever had. Knowing that I came back with the hope of getting into a better job, the sinking feelings in the pit of my stomach reminds me the chance I made a terrible mistake. Still, there is something to leaving a place as a young adult and returning an adult. The most difficult part has been discovering how my of my former friends have left. This is equally frightening for me, being here mostly alone, but also comforting knowing they had the good sense to move on and stay away.
Fortunately for me, this is only temporary. I only moved here while I am looking for a job in the city nearby where I want to work. I didn’t just up and quite my job as I had done in the past. I have already been told that basically I am the ideal candidate and they said they have multiple openings I would be qualified for. Because the position is in the media business, I understand the process it takes getting hired on. As of right now I can at least take small comfort in knowing two local papers have agreed to afford me the opportunity to ell them stories as a freelancer in the interim. It keeps me working in the field while I await the job I moved here for to get through the red tape it takes to hire someone in our business. Between background checks, credit checks, calling references, pouring through writing samples, videos, etc., it can take a while.
Remaining optimistic in the face of being unemployed in a town I left behind has been nothing but a challenge. At the end of the day, things don’t always go as planned. All things considered, I really can’t complain too much, after all I did get to do a music video with a world-famous professional wrestler recently. Sometimes you just have to balance optimism with realism, something I think every journalist has to learn at some point in their career.
Stephanie Bri 