From whence came you?

I was born in 1972 in Pittsburgh. I've lived quite a few places, but returned to Pittsburgh twice before finally settling in New York. Most of my family there is gone, so I have only been back to Pittsburgh twice since my mother died in 2016. That is still odd to me and I doubt I'll ever think of myself as a New Yorker. I wouldn't want to even though I like it here just fine.

I worked in journalism most of my adult life before finally getting out for good about seven years ago. I'm glad I had that experience, but what I'm doing now is what I should have been doing all along. I'm very lucky that I got those years in the career I wanted, and then I moved on to something even better.

I've mentioned before that I'm married with one child, a teenage daughter. I can't believe I've been posting here almost as long as she has been alive.

 

This feels like we're all being introduced on a game show.

 

Mid-60s. Grew up in a quaint little village just south of Buffalo. Escaped the snow to attend college at Three Chopt Tech in Virginia (Class of 1976), then to the Upper, Upper Midwest for nine years before moving to the PNW and the great city of Microville in 1984.

Thirty-six years in newspapers, private sports-related business for three years, then three years as the world's oldest intern at the local P5 university, then cobbling together part-time jobs the past couple years until starting SSI this August. Still a seasonal contract worker with the sports-related business and the university, the money is nice and it keeps me busy so I'll keep doing it for another couple years, at least.

Could have gone to Wake Forest, Marietta, Baldwin-Wallace, Muskingum, Heidelberg or Canisius but chose elsewhere. Married, one kid now in law school in Colorado (hey Roscablo, don't forget me and those Broncos' tickets!).

 

Please fix the headline. "From whence" makes my head hurt.

 

Born in 1952 in Santa Monica.
Was a homebody living and working in my hometown for 25 years until 1995. I was a sports writer on a decent suburban, the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, that covered all of the L.A. teams. Got the Kings beat right away. Covered the Dodgers starting in 1981 for 2-1/2 seasons, until a merger with the Daily Breeze of Torrance. Was the main college writer and shared the Kings beat after that. Layoff in 1995.
Had a 14-month stint on the sports desk at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, then got a job on the sports desk at the Orange County Register in 1997 and kept that until 2014, when I took a buyout to beat a layoff.
Happily retired for 5-1/2 years.

 

Mid-30s, was born in Cowshitistan, spent my formative years in a small town most noted for being the hometown of a US President. Of the 98 people I graduated with, only 4 people have gone as far to move out of state, so safe to say none of us will be following in his footsteps.

I have two degrees (the second I obtained after flaming out of sports writing), I have lived in nine cities across four states. I've lived in my current locale in Texas for six years and if I make it another six months, it will be the longest I've lived in one place continuously in my entire life. I work in marketing and manage to use that journalism degree by doing things like proofing everything my company sends out and being the editor and design director of our semi-annual magazine. Also I recently have taught both undergrad and grad students at a not-insignificant journo school and have been appalled by the lack of emphasis put on design. Or interviewing. Or writing in general.

 

Born 1981, bounced around central Nebraska up through high school. Mine is an Air Force family so wanderlust runs deep.

My high school newspaper's advisor -- whose day job was city editor for the local paper -- opened the door to the business by suggesting to the sports editor I do phoners on prep nights. Things went weirder and westward from there, with jobs in Oregon, Hawaii, China, Indonesia, and the UAE. Started just doing sports, later branched out into business and international news.

Burnout and layoffs soured me on the business so I tried to get out, finishing undergrad in Japan and grad school in Singapore with degrees in something other than journalism. Despite my best efforts -- applying to jobs in management consulting, risk analysis, government affairs, even the damn Pokemon Company -- my only decent offers are back in the media. Teaching is looking increasingly like the path to pursue.

I've moved house 21 times since graduating from high school. Not sure if it's the nature of the business or my personal restlessness that keeps me as a leaf on the wind, but I would like to try sticking around somewhere for a while and feeling part of a community.

 

Born in 1960 in Los Angeles and I have lived and worked in Southern California my entire life.

Worked pretty much every newsroom job from sports reporter to sports editor to news management and copy desk. I spent four years as editor of a small daily before we were bought and absorbed by the countywide paper. I worked for six papers (two of them twice) and I finished my journalism career as a news reporter about 18 months ago and became the PIO for a public agency.

 

What the heck did they emphasize if not writing, interviewing or design?

 

Born in 1975. Bounced from New York’s Hudson Valley to Brooklyn to Staten Island and back upstate to the foothills of the Adirondacks before my 12th birthday, where I finally felt home. Started in sports at my hometown paper for $15 a story while still in high school. Moved up and out. To news. To being the big boss. To big papers. To features. And then back “home” to slum it at my hometown paper again while helping a friend fix a nonprofit. Left journalism for the nonprofit fulltime in 2012 and left for similar job, this time in Pennsylvania, four months ago. Starting to feel old as Baby MMSW is already in her next-to-last semester of college.

 

Born in 1965, raised in the St. Louis suburbs and started my career there at a weekly chain that was eventually Journal Register/Lee'd out of business. Moved to northwest Ohio in 2000, where I'm at today. Spent 10 years in sports, 10 years as an A section news designer and the past 11 years back in sports. Currently at a small daily about 40 miles south of Toledo. Still enjoy the daily grind, there's good people to work with here both at the paper and the coaches/players I cover.

 

Same.

CT, NY, SC, IN, NH, MA, FL