I think my mom sent this question in. As an alternative to traditional newspaper reporting I have chosen to start blogging. I have really enjoyed reading blogs in the last few years, and I feel like, even though I am a little late to the blogging party, it’s time to throw my hat into the ring. (Is that enough cliches for you?)

I enjoy the fact that a blog can be whatever you want it to be. Anybody can blog. You can talk about whatever you want, post whatever links/pictures you want. You are in control, you have an outlet for all your thoughts. Whether anyone reads them or not is a different story, but at least the access is there.

That’s one of the things that has bothered me the most since I left school, I felt like I had all these things to say, and no vehicle to convey them. So now with this blog, I can finally share my experiences…GET READY WORLD….

Very good question. I came to Syracuse with a life-long ambition of wanting to be the play-by-play voice of my beloved Chicago Cubs. That was it. I didn’t want to be Bob Costas, I just wanted to be the Voice of the Cubs. The thing is, the more play-by-play I did, the more I realized I didn’t like it as much as other things, namely writing. I took a class early in my junior year, taught by the immortal Voice of the Orange, Matt Park, and I realized that play-by-play just wasn’t for me right now. I loved being on the air, I actually co-hosted a baseball talk show while I was at school, and I realized that I enjoyed that format more.

Another path that a lot of people take after school is to become the sports director at a news station in a small town. This is just not something I wanted to do.  I HATE EDITING.  For those of you who have done it, you know what I mean. My buddies still kid me, saying that I was the first person in the history of the school to graduate without really knowing how to edit. Truth be told, I do know how to edit, it’s just that it took me forever to do it. The thought of filming things, and editing them, day after day, did not appeal to me.

So, knowing all this, I started to focus on writing. The problem was that my degree was in broadcast journalism, not newspaper. I did not have any internships at a newspaper, my internships had been mostly at radio stations, so I didn’t have a lot of writing samples. I worked for the paper at school, so that helped, but I was far behind my peers in terms of their experience level.

I then applied to numerous jobs, trying to sell myself as a writer/tv reporter/radio host, but at the time, people were not very receptive to my ideas, or lack of experience. I was stuck. In August of ‘06 though, two things happened that really helped me out. First, I started working part-time for 740 The Team, which at the time was Orlando’s only 24 hour sports-talk radio station. At 740, I worked mainly as board-op, making sure everything at the station worked correctly.

Through Marc Daniels, then the program director at 740, I was introduced to Lynn Hoppes, the Sports Editor at The Orlando Sentinel. Lynn allowed me to started writing freelance stories for the Sentinel, something that I really enjoyed doing. I worked at the radio station and wrote as much as I could for the Sentinel. This lasted for about a year, while I was still trying to figure out what my next step was going to be.

During this time, I started to realize that my chances of landing a full-time job at either the radio station, or the Sentinel, were not very good. First of all, I, along with my fellow graduates, lacked the experience to land a job in a “major market.” (Thank you Dr. Wright)

Secondly, while I didn’t realize it at the time, neither the radio station, nor the paper, were very high on available funds. It was at this time, that I realized that times were changing in the journalism world. Radio and Newspapers, as I knew them, were about to become a thing of the past.

So, thanks to a family friend, I landed a job working for an agent that represents baseball players. I had a lot of fun working for the company, but over the course of the next year, I realized that the athlete representation business just wasn’t for me. My heart was still in sports, but I wanted to see if I could make a living writing about them.

It was last November when I finally came to this realization. I was convinced that there had to be a way for me to break into the business, the problem was, I still didn’t know exactly how to go about doing that. The budget cuts in all local journalism arenas were overwhelming. In fact, in January ‘08, 740, the station I used to work for, became an all Spanish talk radio station.

Long story short, I am at a crossroads in my life. Do I try to reinvent myself with a job I’m not passionate about? Or, do I continue to try and find a way to break into the sports journalism world? I still believe in myself, and I believe I can be successful in this field, if given the chance.
That’s why I am still driving, flying, and e-mailing trying to get my foot in the door. But, there are certainly days when I think I should probably go do something else. I seem to be asking myself the same question lately: Is this really what I’m meant to do?

It’s funny, two years ago I really didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. All I could tell people was that I wanted to work in/cover sports. Two years later, I actually think I have a better understanding of the direction I am heading.

I’ve already had people ask me how did you come up with the name for your site. Well, the simple answer is, I sat around with some of my friends brainstorming, over the course of a few days, and started throwing names around that might work. My mom came up with this one, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

I graduated from Newhouse, the best journalism school in the country. Newhouse, the same place where Bob Costas, Marv Albert, and Mike Tirico all went to school. The thing is, you always hear about the famous people who went to school there, but what you don’t always hear about are the people like me, the people who graduate from Newhouse, and still can’t seem to find a job in their field of interest.

Let’s make something clear right off the bat. I loved my time at Newhouse. I truly believe it is the best journalism school in the country, and I wouldn’t trade the experience I had for anything in the world. I learned a lot, and I know that if and when I do get a full-time job, in the journalism field, it will be due to my education from the ‘Cuse.

I don’t blame Newhouse at all for the reason I still can’t seem to find a job doing something I want to do. There are lots of things that have contributed to that fact, most of which is the fact that the journalism field has totally changed even in the two years since I graduated. That is another big reason why I have started this blog, I want to try and figure out where the journalism field is going, specifically in sports.

Here are the things you should know about me before we get going. My name is Nick Friedell. I graduated two years ago from The Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. I grew up and still live in Orlando, FL. I have had one main passion since I was a kid, and that is my love of sports. I have played sports, watched sports, and been going to events for as long as I can remember.

One of the mottos I Iive by in my life is “see it all, do it all.” I want to see, experience and savor every moment until my time is up. That is the reason I have dragged my friends and family to every game/event you could possibly imagine.

I feel like one of the best ways to learn about things, in my case sports, is to experience them first-hand. Luckily for me, I have had the privilege to follow my passion. My hope is that through this blog, I can convey to you some of the stories that have made my life so entertaining to my family and friends.

I want this to be a sports blog, because that is what I love to talk about. But I want it to be a little different, I want people to see the world through my eyes. The eyes of a 24 year old, who is trying to figure what the heck it is that he wants to do with his life.

There is a frame that sits on my desk that I have stared at so many times in the past two years, that the image is burned into my brain. Inside the frame is a picture of me at my college graduation. I am dressed in a cap and gown and on each side of me are my mom and my dad. “The Real World,” it says at the top of the frame… “What’s next?” is etched on the bottom.

That is the question I have been asking myself, and been trying to answer. I don’t know what’s next, I am still trying to figure that part out.

I have started this blog so that people can read about what its been like for me, as I try to find my way in the world.