A Media Meet Cute

The night before, I was up late reading-but-not-really-reading Emma. I knew with the certainty of an 18-year-old that I was supposed to find my English Major courses tedious - that’s what made it college. But, desperate for coffee and willing to risk a tardiness glare for a kiosk cup, I diverged from my normal path to class. It was in the too-bright basement halls of my university that I had a meet-cute with digital media.

WFUV Public Radio at Fordham University was my first “real” job (if you don’t count slinging pizza in your slow-motion hometown). When I rerouted that day, I passed their fishbowl-esque doors and found myself wondering if they had a student program. Not only did they, but they also were accepting applications. How serendipitous.

It was as a student grunt at WFUV that I learned video production from tip to tail. I went in with a vague-ish interest in video editing (though I still wanted to be a book editor) and I left with a working understanding of lighting composition, videography, and snappy edits. But with only WFUV under my belt and a misguided understanding of what I actually wanted to do, an editing career was a long ways off.

Years passed before I had the chance to try creative work again. While struggling through a desk job at ABC News, the COVID crisis hit full swing. Within less than a week, I was behind my laptop on my childhood twin bed. Even if we could go outside - well, I refer back to the aptly described slow-motion hometown. So I worked on my career. On a whim I downloaded Premiere and began to teach myself the program through free online courses. Almost immediately I was taken by the art, and (don’t tell my old boss) I was working on passion projects and volunteer work during my day job. The growth I experienced as an editor was exponential.

Landing my first editing job at ZEALOT was a bit like finding love after a dud relationship; I thought, “so this is what it’s like to actually care about your work.” And they truly took a chance on me - while WFUV taught me plenty, it was far back in my world and I had little to show outside of those years. But I knew I had something to contribute and they saw it in me, too.

Over a lot of too-strong coffees and chess-move meetings, I proudly found my niche as a digital-exclusive editor. I now work hand-in-hand with the graphics specialists to create bespoke campaigns for a multitude of genres, staying in on the process from pitch to publish. From the start I was always meant to be an editor - I just needed to figure out which kind.