After one year and three months of working part-time jobs and completing 209 job applications, followed by 10 months of Corporate America where I stressed about things like goals, stats and our clients inability to accept the fact that sometimes their earning tables won’t be perfectly spaced, I FINALLY got my dream job.
It only took a little over two years. Frankly, I thought it would take much longer. No one gets what they want at 23, especially if they’re a journalist, right?
In less than two weeks I will start my new job as the Associate Editor of Alternative Press. For those uninitiatied, AP is a national music magazine that covers punk, alternative, and pretty much anything not in the mainstream. And, it happens to be located in my new hometown of Cleveland. I’ve been reading AP since I was 15. I still remember the first issue I read. The All-American Rejects were on the cover. I had just discovered them, but I was already in love. The usual magazines I read at the time—YM and Teen People—weren’t covering my new favorite band, but then I heard that they were going to be on the cover of some magazine called Alternative Press. I had to order my issue online because I couldn’t find it in my hometown.
The issue blew me away. I had never read a magazine solely devoted to this kind of music–music that couldn’t be found on the Top 40 charts. I was just discovering this world of, emo, alternative, punk, hardcore, screamo, and I was quickly falling in love with it. I didn’t know half the bands in that issue of AP but I knew I wanted to know more. I knew I wanted to keep reading this magazine.
When I learned that AP was looking for an associate editor I had to apply. I wasn’t looking for a new job, but when a job that you’ve wanted since you were 15 is suddenly available, you apply. So I sent in my resume and clips. I waited. Then I got a phone call. Then I got an interview. Then I waited what felt like two years but was actually just two weeks. Then I got another phone call. Then I got a job. No, the job. Suddenly, the past two years didn’t seem so bad.
In the words of Penny Lane from “Almost Famous:” It’s all happening. I look forward to sharing it with all of you.
