You know that really bad dream when you leave the house without pants on or fail to wash the soap out of your hair on your first day of a new job? Well, I'm living the dream today people.
First of all the good news: starting today I am your new anchor for News 4 at Noon! Woohoo! Looking forward to lots of lunch dates with all of you. Now to the bad...which I probably should just keep to myself, but I know someone out there feels my pain. So while I did manage to put pants on before leaving my house and I promise you I *did* wash my hair, I'm here to confess that I didn't do it very well. At all. I started with good intentions. A nice deep condition to kick off a week of wonderful hair days, right? Right, that's how it always works for me too. Anyway, I didn't realize my mistake until mid-blow dry. The hair around my temples was not getting dry and I was starting to look like Danny Zuko from Grease. Not cute. I must have been so distracted that I forgot how to shampoo, and I most definitely didn't rinse and repeat. At this point, rewashing was just not an option. Too much time. I was already less than 6 hours away from 2 o'clock alarm and my eyelids were starting to feel heavy. So I decided to go with it. I have done my best to dry shampoo and tease and hide my hair, but alas, it will not go away. I can make no promises for my appearance when the clock strikes noon, but I hope you tune in anyway. I promise my hair ranks exactly last on the list of important things we will cover in the newscast. And a fun side note for all of you who've been told you weren't good enough or would never achieve your dreams: When I head out to the set today, I will be mentally sending just a teensy bit of credit to a former boss who once told me I would never be here. Never reporting the news in my hometown, never anchoring a show because of my "horrible Midwestern accent," and never finding any success in the television news business. Wherever he is today, all I have to say is thanks for giving me the motivation and determination to prove you wrong. Alright, that's all for now. I'm off to find more dry shampoo whilst humming along to Taylor Swift's, "Mean." Happy Monday, everybody! Emily
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I am so excited to share with you all that I won my first Emmy last weekend!! I never expected that it would be for helping out another reporter, but I'm proud I got to be part of telling a very special story about a little boy who lost his battle with brain cancer. See the story here: http://tinyurl.com/mar3zwa My contribution to the project involved shooting video at a SLU basketball game. At the time I actually had a pretty bad attitude about it.
It was a chilly Saturday night last November. Fellow reporter Mike Colombo asked the week before if I would shoot some of the game and the halftime ceremony featuring Joshua Brown's family. I said maybe-- but only if no one else could do it. Working the camera has never been my favorite part of the job, and shooting sports is a whole different animal...one that is WAY out of my comfort zone. I didn't want to do it and deep down, I doubted my ability to get the shots he needed. But I also knew how important this story was to Mike. And Joshua had unknowingly made an impact on me that year as well. I hoped and prayed for a full recovery for Josh as he fought his illness and like so many others, felt deeply saddened by his death. So when that Saturday rolled around, and Mike asked/begged every last 'real' photographer to help but none could make it, I said yes. I remember the nervousness building in my chest as we walked in the press entrance at Chaifetz Arena. The team was about to start warming up so we made our way to the court. Joshua had grown close with several of the SLU players the season before, so I wanted to get some up close shots. I awkwardly settled on the floor under the basket and started recording. It was my first time shooting sports since....college? maybe high school? Naturally, the camera was rolling for about 45 seconds when I got smoked in the face with a basketball. Boy, did that add to my cheerful disposition. Now I was on the verge of tears, questioning myself even more, and really feeling the pressure. Well, guess what? It all turned out okay. I got what we needed and even a few pretty decent shots. In all it's a small part of Mike's story and it was gracious of him to include me on the list of contributors. But I really believe there's a lesson here. There are opportunities and gifts where we least expect them. It's a reminder for me of all of those quotes about going out on the limb because that's where the fruit is. Except in this case the limb came in the form of a college basketball court and the fruit, a lovely gold statuette. It isn't how I imagined winning my first Emmy, but now I can say I wouldn't have it any other way. My new hardware will always represent the value of teamwork, of Joshua's impact on the world in his nine short years, and the power of choosing to believe in myself instead of doubt. Why did I waste my energy that night feeling insecure instead of trusting myself to rise to the occasion? I stuck it out and fell back on the 'fake it til you make it' mantra, but even that is playing small. Next time, I'm all in. And I'll be sure to tell you all about it. Thanks for reading, em |