Oarsome! Scoop Decent Does It Again!
It's a small world after all...On Saturday I was at home chatting on the phone with Abi when I received a text from Robin. Turns out he was on the Thames preparing to watch the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Not only that, but his friend Matt had learnt that the Oxford cox was from Naperville!
We all grew up watching the race. For some unknown reason I always supported Cambridge, (not because I was ever likely to study there, alas) and we'd cheer and shout at the TV until the finishing line was crossed. Somehow the two narrow rowing boats always looked like fish bones swimming along.
I rushed to the TV, where Grumpy had already switched to BBC America who was showing the race live. So with a phone in one hand, my eye on the screen and Grumpy googling as if his life depended on it, we tracked down the cox's family on the Internet.
It took until Monday to be able to speak to Adam Barhamand's mom because I could only find an office number for her. I was thrilled, especially when she told me she'd been in a launch racing behind the boats. Then she said something I wasn't expecting.
"Adam's back in town, you know. Would you like to talk to him?"
By Monday afternoon I had the story, an interview with mom and a great interview with Adam, plus photographs organized.
Then something else happened.
On the strength of my recent success at the paper (after nearly three years of working for them they're beginning to see just what I can do) I asked the news editor if I could be included in the list of reporters who write opinion pieces.
He agreed, then astonishingly an opening came up for yesterday, on the very day I was to be all over the paper with this story.
As regular blog readers will know, I'm someone who never has an opinion about anything (!) but fortunately with all the stuff I've been covering about a certain Naperville Olympian lately it wasn't difficult.
So in today's paper my story is the front page, I have two pages of story starting on page three and my opinion piece is on page two.
What all this has taught me is this: Sometimes you work so hard in life looking for the next best thing, that you might miss the fact you held it in your hand all along.
We all grew up watching the race. For some unknown reason I always supported Cambridge, (not because I was ever likely to study there, alas) and we'd cheer and shout at the TV until the finishing line was crossed. Somehow the two narrow rowing boats always looked like fish bones swimming along.
I rushed to the TV, where Grumpy had already switched to BBC America who was showing the race live. So with a phone in one hand, my eye on the screen and Grumpy googling as if his life depended on it, we tracked down the cox's family on the Internet.
It took until Monday to be able to speak to Adam Barhamand's mom because I could only find an office number for her. I was thrilled, especially when she told me she'd been in a launch racing behind the boats. Then she said something I wasn't expecting.
"Adam's back in town, you know. Would you like to talk to him?"
By Monday afternoon I had the story, an interview with mom and a great interview with Adam, plus photographs organized.
Then something else happened.
On the strength of my recent success at the paper (after nearly three years of working for them they're beginning to see just what I can do) I asked the news editor if I could be included in the list of reporters who write opinion pieces.
He agreed, then astonishingly an opening came up for yesterday, on the very day I was to be all over the paper with this story.
As regular blog readers will know, I'm someone who never has an opinion about anything (!) but fortunately with all the stuff I've been covering about a certain Naperville Olympian lately it wasn't difficult.
So in today's paper my story is the front page, I have two pages of story starting on page three and my opinion piece is on page two.
What all this has taught me is this: Sometimes you work so hard in life looking for the next best thing, that you might miss the fact you held it in your hand all along.
posted by Hilary at
7:59 AM
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