My Career (to Date) as an Automotive Journalist: The Beginning

In 2012, I was working a desk job that I hated.  I realized whenever I had a free moment I was reading about cars, watches or menswear.  In fact, I started this blog about those three exact things.  I knew I had to make a change.

I already had my bachelor's degree in management and a brief check of the classes I would need to finish to get a second degree, albeit an associate degree, at Austin Community College revealed I only needed nine more hours!  I soon enrolled in an online continuing education class that would teach me how to write for magazines, quit my soul-crushing flunky position and turned in all of the required ACC enrollment paperwork.

One of my classes - Critical Issues in Journalism - was on-campus and taught by a local news anchor.  He was so passionate about politics and the history of journalism that I felt kind of lucky to be in the class.  Even if I don't share your interests, I can absolutely respect and smile at your enthusiasm.

When it came time to write my term paper, I was, at first, tempted to write about Richard Nixon, whose career fascinates me.  However, I didn't want to write about Watergate or all of the hackneyed topics associated with "Tricky Dick."

I was going to go out on a limb and try to start my automotive journalism career early by writing about the media biases and practices applied to and exploited by the late John Z. DeLorean.  (That A-quality paper can be found here.)

Notttt you!

My second class was News Writing I.  Luckily, I was able to take it online.  That didn't make it any easier, though.  Some of the assignments were real nail-biters.  My failure to grasp certain points in assignments was reflected in my grades, but I didn't make those mistakes again.  I ended up bumping along and learning my way to an A. 

I soon got involved with ACC's student newspaper, the Accent.  I proposed writing about male campus fashion, an interest that was not represented at the time.  (The next semester I would write an automotive journalism article for them.)

I finished the semester with As in both classes and by writing about another one of my interests: James Bond.  My review of the movie "Skyfall" would lead to my winning 2nd place in Critical Review from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.  (The awards ceremony took place in April of 2013.  I had no idea I was even up for an award, so I didn't attend it.  Ah, regrets...)

I had no idea how career-shaping my next (and final) semester would be.  And you won't know until you read the next installment in this series (coming soon)...