I found myself having a couple of strange conversations over the weekend. Both of which centered around the same thing. I felt like it was a case of mistaken identity, but each character claimed to have known me. It basically boils down to this.
It has been a little more than four months since I started working at my current job at a daily newspaper. Yet, I still seem to be well-remembered (and apparently, well-liked) enough to still be associated with my old job. One well-wisher asked me why I had left my previous employer because they missed my insight and some of the back-and-forth banter that was presented at the old stomping grounds with an old co-worker in a segment known simply as "banter."
I had informed the young man that I had graduated and moved on to being a professional. Their response was clever. "Do you got any eligibility left?" I could only laugh because at times, I wish I did have another year of eligibility left. I had made enough friends and sources in my time, but it was time to move on and go pro in something other than being a college journalist.
The next day, I had a similar situation with a reader that had recognized my writing at all three of my publication stops. It had become clear to me that if I write, someone will read. No matter where I go. It made me feel like I had some sort of a cult following.
The truth is that it's an honor to have someone read your stuff. But the real feel-good moments come when someone wants to challenge you on something you wrote. Whether it comes via praise or criticism, there was nothing I liked more than going to the bar and talking sports with a random student that recognized my face from the paper.
Those days have lessened slightly, since I don't have my face in the paper every day. But the people I've ran into in the recent past, well, I still run into them on occasion in the present. It kind of makes me feel good about what I'm doing as a journalist.
One of my former professor's pointed out to me that it is good to be able to claim a steady following because it is that kind of exposure that will help me get hired elsewhere. I know journalists are supposed to write the news, not be the news. But in the modern era of sports journalism, the writers are just as well known as the athletes. Rather than hide behind their desk, they're panelists on TV shows with other journalists, radio shows talking with fans, writing blogs and finding a billion other ways to be interactive with their readers.
It might be one of the few things that could keep the sports journalism field alive and kicking.
