For some people, the family business may be a restaurant, a law firm, or even a store of some type. For me, it was the television news industry.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time with a friend of mine named Philip. He and his dad would spend a great deal of their time bonding through hunting, working on cars and occasionally playing Nintendo together. I considered this how families normally bonded.
In contrast to my friend, the majority of time bonding with dear old dad was spent while he worked as a television news photographer.
The news industry never sleeps. Anyone with family in the business will tell you. A news person works around the clock, and depending on their job, you almost never saw them. My dad refused to let that happen and instead, took me along for the ride whenever he could (which was quite often when I was younger).
I saw firsthand how the news was presented from a scene or event to when it was broadcast on televisions all across the Central Valley. It was amazing to me how it all worked, all the effort necessary to create an almost flawless newscast. I learned it was much more than just pushing buttons or reading lines, or pointing and shooting with a camera. I grew a deep appreciation for the news industry and all the hard work involved, and reporting the news to the public with great integrity.
I spent a lot of time with my dad on the road, traveling all across the Central Valley and visiting these small towns that most people would only know by passing through them, or maybe straying away from Highway 99 or 41. It was some of the greatest times I ever had.
Spending a lot of time with adults, more so than my peers, really influenced me greatly. I learned very early how to conduct myself in a business environment; after all, I did not want to lose the opportunity to spend so much time with my dad by getting on everyone’s bad side and mentioning it to the higher ups.
Other people would get star struck when they saw T.V. news personalities; I would view them as just another co worker of my dad’s. I even got a chance to grow close to some of them in particular, seeing one of my first concerts ever alongside a certain anchor for Channel 30 Action News.
It developed a sense of humility within me, knowing that these highly paid and well respected newscasters could also be just another person. It wasn’t all great; I did spend an awful a lot of time without seeing my dad. He was notably absent for when my mom raised issues that needed to be dealt with in the home; their marriage would, over time, deteriorate due to the massive time constraints of the job. Call it an environmental hazard if you will.
As it is now, I have become the journalist and I see things in a new light. I am even more grateful to for the opportunity to be exposed to the news business from early on. It helped guide me towards my decision to report the news around the Fresno City College community through the Rampage.
The people I work with care very deeply about reporting the news, just as much as the day my dad first stepped into the business, and it is that passion that I admire in each of my associates. That passion motivates me to push hard to deliver an even better story every single issue.
