A Missed Opportunity

 

A recent obituary made me reflect upon a rainy Saturday afternoon at Urbana, Ohio's Grimes Field two years ago and the stories I never got around to writing.

Due to the focus of this blog, I rarely share very intimate details of my life for everyone to share; however, I will make a small exception for the purpose of this post. For the past 4-plus months, I have not held a position in my current profession and I have been actively seeking related employment of any sort since the end of January. A discovery yesterday morning during what has become my everyday routine painfully highlighted the greatest shortcoming in my pursuit of a full-time journalistic career--following through on what I start.

A First!!!

Today marks a milestone in my slow but steady journey of becoming a journalist.  Pictured above is the first media credential I have ever been issued to cover a newsworthy event.  For previous assignments, I had to rely upon pre-planning or special access to events in order to attend and report back on the proceedings (and I had my disappointing experience with President Obama's recent trip to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base).  While I did get access to the recognized media area during the local Romney town hall meeting last month, I think that approval was more due to a time and resource crunch and as a favor on the staff's part because there really wasn't a mechanism in place to verify my claim for a credential request (I did ask for one in my RSVP for that event that was never acknowledged).  After I showed several forms of identification to the Secret Service, I was given the 'all clear' and allowed past the area's 'gate keeper' to mingle among the other journalists in attendance.  Today's events ran much smoother and I will detail them below.