Sweeties,
I’ve worked weekends since 2013. For nearly five years my Saturday’s and Sunday’s have involved me sharing the stories of amazing people in Western, New York and Central, Alabama. Working weekends is a part of the job, almost a right of passage in the broadcast business. At some point in your career you must work weekends. If you’re a seasoned journalist and you never worked weekends, HOW? Cub reporters, your time is coming.
It’s not the work that was bad. Because let’s face it, awesome stories unfold over the weekend and someone needs to be there to share them. It was the many family and friend events I missed out on that sometimes made the weekend shift not always desirable. But I pushed through. Besides, it was my job.
This week there’s been a shift! I’m finally moving off of weekends. I’m sure I’ll be called on to fill-in,BUT my official schedule reads Monday -Friday. These five years have taught me a lot. Here are my top three takeaways.
Trust God’s Timing :
For the life of me I couldn’t understand why I still had to work weekends. I was five years into my career when I started my first weekend shift. I thought the more experience would equal “better” shifts. Nope. It doesn’t necessarily work like that. I was on the weekend shift because that’s where God wanted me to serve. Some of my best work was shared over the weekend. I shared stories of resiliency, true kindness, and heroism. I was also trusted to share stories of tragedy and heartbreaks.
The weekends also gave me the chance to sharpen my skills. It was on the weekends where I tried new creative edits or took a chance on a cool standup.
It also showed me how to be resourceful and aggressive. Do you know how difficult it is to get information on the weekends because the only people who can share the information don’t work weekends.
All of this was God’s plan. Trust his timing helped me become a better journalist.
Remain Faithful
In Rochester, my news director straight up told me, it would be virtually impossible to come off weekends because no one was leaving on Monday-Friday. It was the truth, those reporters were planted. Not moving. Here in Alabama, I thought I had a chance. I actually applied and instead of moving me, three more people were hired. I didn’t get the position.
That was tough. It was disappointing. And while hard, I remained faithful. I trusted God would fix it all. It didn’t make sense to me. It was never logical and trying to process it was too much for me to try and understand. Instead, I leaned on my faith. I believed God would make the shift. He did!
Enjoy the Moment
I worked with the most amazing and super brilliant group of people on my weekend shift. I’m talking super smart anchors , resourceful producers, extremely creative photographers and I was the go-getter reporter. We also knew how to have fun. We had a potluck for every occasion. Seriously,we celebrated the first day of spring once. And my girls in Rochester knew how to party. After work was always an after party.Because I took time to try and enjoy the moments, I created lasting friendships and fun memories.
I’ve always heard the old folks say, there’s a shift. I’m a witness. While I was waiting on a shift change, God was shifting some things around inside of me. He was also shifting some hearts and minds of decisions markers. He’s in the business of doing that as well. I’m grateful for this shift in spirit and schedule.
What I’m Wearing:
Dress: Asos, get it HERE
Heels: Justfab (sold out) , cute sandals HERE
Fashionably yours
Jamiese
