Last night I found myself near downtown Houston a the grand opening of a bar that was offering free food for Halloween revelers.
I got offered a job as a reporter in the Spring-Klein market, so I packed up my Kia with as much of my belongings and trekked my way through two states.
The Friday before Halloween I found myself having dinner alone after a long day of driving at a place called Ozona, 36 miles or so away from my destination, the hotel room I reserved that night in Sonora. Though the wi-fi was spotty, the room was comfortable and I had a good time speaking to my sister, whom I stayed with two nights prior in Arizona.
It wasn't easy to say goodbye to family and friends and my routine, but I relished a fresh start and full time work so the decision really was made for me. I drove for four straight days with stops in Arizona and El Paso along the way before finally reaching Houston a week ago.
Right up till my move I had been practicing journalism and writing as much as I could, doing some freelancing for the SGVExaminer and tweeting out scores of prep football games for the SGVTribune. In fact, I was freelancing for three newspapers including the Weekly News in Chino and anapr.com.
Thought I was comfortable with my freelancing, I wanted to work full time and doing it out of state was my only options. Journalists are often told to start in small markets before pursuing bigger more saturated media jobs, but with all my experience, I am not exactly new to the industry.
My experience in the new job, though I have had some rough patches, is plugging along and I even participated in our office Halloween party this past weekend.
It is great to be able to practice journalism full time with a good market to cover including coverage of school districts and local government.
I have not completely got used to some things in Houston, the highways and toll roads, and the differences in weather patterns, but I think getting acclimated in a new region always takes time and patience and hard work.
I never knew how much I would miss my old life, my routine trips to Barnes and Noble on weekends, jaunts to North Orange county near my alma matter, high shool football games and Mt SAC and Citrus College games, and even my old desktop computer.
Thus far, the fruits of my labor has been covering an event for the Spring ISD (Independent School District) which gave me a chance to get to know the communications people for the district and to write a nice little web story.
Next week I will be covering local races in Texas for the upcoming election, and who knows what else. Though today I finally got a chance to rest for a bit, and though I am grateful to be working in journalism, I felt homesick for the very first time, missing my hometown and my routines, but I think that the future holds good things for me.
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