Is A Blonde Ambition Becoming Reality?

While home over Christmas break, I decided to return to my former internship to help out (and refresh old networking ties). On my last day in the office, my mentor came into my cubicle and suggested a job-opening that he thought I would enjoy: producing the news for a small-market television station in Georgia.

For those who don't know, the journalism industry is a hierarchy - you can't just start at the top of the food chain (the top television markets). While working in the Philadelphia-area would be a plus, it also wouldn't likely be a reality for me. Philadelphia is the fourth largest media market in the country (preceeded by New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, respectively). Generally, the talent (reporters) who work there are people who started out twenty years ago working for stations in towns that not many have heard of.

This afternoon, I finally heard back from the lady at the station in Georgia who interviewed me a few months ago. She wanted to know if I was still interested in the position.

I'm finding myself at a crossroads.

I've always wanted to change the world. I got into journalism in the first place because I wanted to be able to use my public access to make others aware of the issues of the world (especially those issues that included human rights). I've set myself up to try to be as successful as possible as a journalist: I learned French and Spanish, became active with our campus television station, kept my grades up, and landed an internship with a major television station.

I've jumped all the hoops.

Is this my chance to change the world? And if it is, if this is my foot in the door to doing that, if this is a way for me to get started doing what I love, what is my deal? Why am I freaking out?

Everything in my life up to this point has been so routinized: go to elementary school, go to middle school, go to high school, get into college, go to college. And now I'm sitting 5 days away from graduation, and I think I'm having a quarter-life crisis. For someone who prides herself on being spontaneous, I hate not knowing what is supposed to happen to me in a few months. I'm aware that getting a job is supposed to happen. But the "openness" and amount of choices available are daunting.

When I sit back and look at the "bigger picture", it's exciting. The possibility of a fresh start, a warm environment (where my hair would be sure to look like Mufasa's mane on a daily basis), and new people thrill me.

The possibility of leaving everyone and everything I know behind doesn't.

And what would a transplanted Philly/hippie/horrible vegetarian/opinionated blonde look like in rural Georgia?