Good thing I love my voice

Obviously I’ve never been one to keep to myself. My opinion is a very great one, and I love bringing awareness toward my cause to all who offer an open ear. Indeed, you probably couldn’t say I’m just a humble kid from Coeur d’Alene, as I very much love to hear my voice.

Nevertheless, when it comes to public speaking, I’ve always been a fan. Whether giving speeches in high school and college, award ceremonies with the Little League teams I’ve coached, or even announcing the awards I judged to a very large conference room of high school newspaper staffs, I lean a little more into the spotlight than away from it.

However, I recently spent quite a while deciding whether to be involved in a panel discussion in San Diego this month discussing my role in running a college newspaper. Sure, making a room full of soccer moms laugh is one thing, but coming across as a serious journalist – nay, a real life editor-in-chief – to an entire room full of those who consider themselves as such is quite the jump from Park and Rec!

But I accepted.

My only qualm comes in the scheduling of the speech: Saturday morning at 10 a.m. That’s a good spot as far as the convention is concerned, but not so much when I had planned on spending the night before in a Tijuana bar. However, I must realize that an event such as this doesn’t come around all too often. How many times will I be in position to actually talk about all things newspaper-related that I love (from Front page design to feature writing, managing a staff of 40 to selling ads in a paper that doesn’t need them) to an entire room full of people who are actually listening to me?

I have a hard enough time talking to most people about anything and having them listen to me.

So if I must move my Tijuana dream back a day, that is perfectly fine. I can go to Mexico any time (although this will be my first), but the experience at this convention will last a lifetime.

And by that, I mean people will forever remember me. You know, because I’m just a humble guy from Coeur d’Alene.