Out of my inbox…

Brendan Meyer came into my orbit his last year at Mizzou. Charming. Creative. Cocky. And a bit caught up in the notion of where he wanted to be instead of the steps along the road to getting there.

He graduated from the J-school last year with limitless ambitions and dreams (ESPN! Sports Illustrated!), limited experience and limited traction. But he took butt-kicking pretty well, from me and others at the School of J.

It seems his tires have caught — that traction thing — and, in the parlance of where he is now, he is finding the cattle beneath his hat. After an epic road trip (19,712 miles, 30 states, 10 national parks) and talking his way into newsrooms to schmooze editors along the way, he landed a reporting job at the Casper, Wyoming, Star-Tribune. With my loud blessing. Nothing compares to what you learn doing journalism where the person you write about one day is the one who pulls your truck out of the ditch the next. And nothing compares to the adventure of discovering a world totally different than any you’ve known. On that front, Wyoming qualifies for most of us.

So for my first out-of-my-inbox post, I pass along this gift from Brendan, shared with his permission. (And after I made him check with his editors.) He sent it as part of an exchange we had about a dogsledding story he did up in on Casper Mountain. I did my own tour at the back of a dogsled (WomenDogsledders) when I was a reporter, so know his story is solid.

Brendan’s note made my heart soar, for so many reasons, but mostly because I love when the joy of discovery that comes with journalism trumps all the dirge about its death and irrelevance. I told him to tattoo this to his belly, upside down, and read it whenever he forgets. I plan to do the same, minus the tattoo.

 I have lots of freedom to write some great human interest stories, but like all young journos, have to deal with my fair share of feed-the-beast stories, which is especially common at small papers.

Yes, sometimes I have to write a preview about a fashion show. But I also get to write a story about dog sledding, where I actually drove my own sled with six dogs on top of the mountain yesterday. It was incredible.

So you win some, you lose some. But at the end of the day, it is always reassuring that I’m at a place that pushes and respects narrative writing.