WHY I DECIDED TO PURSUE A CAREER IN BROADCASTING
When I was in the seventh grade, I vividly remember our school's principal giving a speech in the auditorium saying how seventh grade is when you find out what you want to be when you grow up. He mentioned his daughter always loved to fly, and decided that when she was in the seventh grade, she was going to be a pilot, and she eventually saw her dream to the end and became one. As for me, I was convinced I was going to be a professional volleyball player in the AVP. I had just taken up volleyball as a sport in the sixth grade, and absolutely loved the game. Not to mention, Kerri Walsh and Misty May were my idols. I know most people didn't become what they thought they were going to be back in the seventh grade, but I did.
For those of you who are sitting in your seats saying "Kirsten. You're not a professional volleyball player." you are all correct. I left the auditorium that day actually feeling said, and not inspired like I'm sure the intention of that speech was. I went to gym class and was talking in a group of my girl friends saying how I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, because it hit me that I wasn't good enough of a volleyball player to go pro. My friend Caitlyn then spoke up, and I had no idea that what she was going to tell me was going to change the course of my entire life thus far. She goes "Kirsten, I could see you being the next Erin Andrews. You love football. Why don't you become a football broadcaster like Erin Andrews?" Being the self entitled middle schooler that I was at the time, I remember saying something along the lines of "I don't want to be the one interviewing people, I want to be the one being interviewed!" However, I thought about it a little more, and I realized Caitlyn was right. I loved football, so why not pursue a career in football?
From there on out, everything changed. I would ask my mom to take me to the public library on a regular basis. I'm sure the librarians were curious to know why a 13 year old girl was checking out books on Tom Landry and The Ice Bowl, but that's exactly what I did. I wanted to know everything. I would get into arguments with all of my guy friends about all of my sports opinions and even guys who I didn't really talk to, and some of them would tell me I'm a girl and I don't know anything about sports. Others would quiz me telling me to name at least five players on my favorite teams. That unfortunately happened to me all throughout high school. I also got into the habit of doing something I still don't know how I did to this day, but I woke up at 4:00am every. single. day. to watch Mike and Mike and to catch the early edition of SportsCenter. I then would go to my history class a few minutes early, and my teacher would turn on the projector and put ESPN on in the minutes before class started.
Once I entered high school, I wanted to do everything I could to start getting broadcasting experience. Our TV program was cut the year before I got to school, but that didn't stop me. I became the only sports reporter for our high school newspaper, which was an after school club. I also took two years of a journalism class where we worked on pages in the school's yearbook and conducted interviews.
During my junior year, I was ready for more and was trying to figure out what the next step was for me to make my dreams a reality. I was looking at colleges, and was looking at schools such as the University of Minnesota, Mizzou, ASU, and the University of Georgia. Mainly because of their journalism programs, but mainly because of their football programs. There was a day Saint Cloud State had someone from admissions coming down to give a presentation on their school, and I had intended to visit because it was kind of close to home and I heard they also had a broadcasting program. But, to be honest that day I saw it as a free opportunity to get out of class. I went to the meeting, and the person speaking from admissions was named Hannah (I still ran into her during my time in college which was very cool). Without me even asking, she not only started talking about the renowned broadcasting program the school has, but how great of a sports broadcasting program the school had. She talked about how the program airs games on Fox Sports North and that the production is all student ran. She also showed a picture of the Ice Side Reporter for the broadcast, who at the time was Taylor Budge who would also become one of my mentors during my freshman year of college. I left the meeting knowing, without even touring, that St. Cloud State was the school I was going to, and that I was going to be the Ice Side Reporter.
Looking back now as a graduate about to take on my first job in the industry, it's crazy how everything came to be and exceeded my wildest expectations. Going to St. Cloud State provided me with so many opportunities that I never could have imagined a few years back, and truly allowed me to start living my dream. I think it's safe to say that seventh grade Kirsten would be so proud.
