Hey there, folks.
Alright, I really eased into my three-day weekend. So much so that I decided to wait a day and dispatch on this Memorial Day morning.
We were really lucky that some beloved friends came by for a weekend visit. My mother and father took our kiddo for the night. We’ve got a garage to clean out today, and it’ll be a lot easier to do without the little monster flying around (even though we miss him dearly right now).
I’ve been really fortunate this week. As far as career milestones, it’s been major. And that’s why I choose the word “gratitude” three times over for the name of this newsletter.
I’m going to break it down into three parts.
A new job
I started as a tech reporter for the Sports Business Journal this week. After more than a year out of reporting, I’m back in it.
When I made the decision to leave the Winston-Salem Journal at the start of 2022, I felt burnt out. I thought it would be easy to leave. It was not. When I got out of journalism completely, spending the last six-plus months in marketing, I wanted to move on from my past career.
The fact is I couldn’t. Reporting and writing are what I have always wanted to do. So I feel really lucky to be back in it now.
For those of you who don’t know, SBJ is a national outlet that covers every facet of professional and collegiate sports. It’ll be a different kind of experience for me. I won’t be going to games anymore to write about the matchup or what happened. I’ll be writing about the business aspects. The things you might not think about often, but the things you see all the time without realizing it. The advertising in the building, the equipment used throughout the stadium in the area/stadium, etc. And there’s so much to learn about in the tech space. I’m excited to learn.
There aren’t many places you can spend a career in journalism nowadays, but SBJ is one of them. Here was my first byline, by the way. Nothing special but still cool to see it.
A big moment
My first major byline as a freelancer published this week. The story is one I wanted to write for years.
I wrote about Vaughn Christian, the most humble man I’ve ever met. I would love for you to read this story, mainly because I’ve worked on it off and on for years. Here’s a link to the story: The Real Ted Lasso Lives in North Carolina.
I met Vaughn in 2018, when I went up for a visit in his Boone, N.C. home with my coworker, Andrew Dye. A couple months earlier, I learned (through a soccer podcast I love) that Appalachian State once had a national championship-contending soccer program. I was fixated on a player named Thompson Usiyan, who was and still is the all-time leading goal scorer in NCAA D1 soccer history. What I quickly learned, though, was how hard Vaughn worked to build the program with so little credit.
He stuck in my mind. I wanted to write about him while I was with the Winston-Salem Journal, but I never had the opportunity. So at the start of 2023, the idea of writing the story entered my head for the upteenth time. I reached out to a few people and learned that a surprise 80th birthday party was in store for Vaughn with 40-plus of his former players. I weaseled my way in.
I pitched this story around a few places. I finally found a home for it at Salvation South, which does great work on many people and topics throughout this region. I’m really fortunate that Chuck Reese, the editor-in-chief there, believed in me and this story.
This will be my favorite piece for a long time. I’m really proud of how it turned out. Mostly, I’m glad that I could shine a light on someone who deserved it.
Vaughn is truly impressive and wonderful. He should get his flowers. I’m thankful for Vaughn, and I learned that a lot of others are too.
Nostalgic flavor
Last newsletter, I wrote about my grandmother who passed last year. I miss her so much. And while writing, I remembered a nostalgic flavor that I missed as well: Waffle Crisp cereal. It was a fixture in her house.
Well you won’t believe this, but after writing about her, I saw that cereal on a grocery shelf for the first time in FOREVER. So I bought it. I was afraid that it would not be as good as I remembered.
But folks, let me tell you: it was just as magical as before. I have had coffee cups full of Waffle Crisp all week. I won’t let myself use a bowl because if I do, it’s going to be trouble.
It is still delicious though. Too damn good, honestly.
Here is that post again if you’d like to read it.
Take care and thanks for reading,
Ethan