TCC: Right place, right time

By Steve knight/editor-in-chief

After crashing and burning out on a career as a music educator, I did not know what I was going to do.

Not knowing where to go or what to do when you are 41 years old is not a place I would recommend to anyone.

After my dad said I should do something to exploit my writing skills (I don’t remember being a good writer in high school, but I guess he did) and after considering everything else, I decided to study journalism.

Other than growing up reading the newspaper everyday, playing Atari and watching the Walter Cronkite-John Chancellor-Tom Brokaw era of television news, I knew nothing about what journalism was really about.

I knew nothing about TCC, nor did I know anything about the newspaper or the journalism program before I walked onto NE Campus 16 months ago.

Since it had been 15 years since I last attended a college class at Texas Tech, I did not know what to expect.

And after making some really bad choices the previous few years, I soon realized that I made an excellent choice in attending TCC.

For me, TCC was the right place at the right time.

Thank you, TCC, for allowing me to find Jennifer Alexander, Chris Whitley and Eddye Gallagher, my reporting teachers and newspaper advisers.

They are among the most patient, knowledgeable and caring teachers I have ever known.

It is because of their leadership that The Collegian has won many national and state awards and their students have gone on to careers with major newspapers and news outlets.

Thanks also to RTVB teachers Adrian Neely and Jerry Zumwalt for teaching me that my face is perfect for print.

I also want to thank the Fort Worth chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for a generous scholarship allowing me to extend my stay, as well as the Star-Telegram’s Bill Hanna for giving me some tips of the trade during those long TCC trustee meetings in closed sessions that seemed to go all night.

And most of all, thanks to my family for putting up with and supporting me during my “life change.”

Thanks, TCC, from all of us 40-somethings for the opportunity to give ourselves a second chance at life.