How to Obtain 33 Jobs in 17 Years (7)

I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. This does not include all of the musicals, operas, television and film projects either. I am a professional singer and actor. Did I plan on having 33 jobs in 17 years? Of course not, but life has been a crazy wild ride. There were no drugs, very little alcohol, but WORK has been my drug of choice! I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My 7th job was Features Staff Writer for the Murray State News.

Double Major

I studied music and journalism at Murray State. In high school, I was involved in television production, choir and theatre. In 2008, I won two Student Emmy awards for my ENG reports and won reporter of the year in my Production class. Four of my reports aired on the local news in Memphis, Tennessee.

Journalism was supposed to be the backup plan if music performance did not pan out for me. However, I realized that if I truly wanted to be television journalist, I would not be able to be a performer. Both careers are not very lucrative and do not mesh well together. Some journalists make millions of dollars, but most journalists make about the equivalent of a teacher’s salary.

Features Writer

During my final semester of college, I was hired as a staff writer for the Murray State News. Since I wanted to be a television journalist, I never considered writing for the school newspaper. The Features editor would give me weekly assignments to write for the paper. I never chose any of my writing assignments. Recently, I found several of my articles online, but had no memory of writing some of the articles.

Last Article Before Graduation

I wrote about 12 articles for the school newspaper. My final writing assignment was to cover The Suspensions, an a cappella male singing group on campus. This article was significant for me. My friends Daniel Milam and Micheal Martin sang in the group. I interviewed both of them at the same time and recorded the interview.

We laughed and had so much fun. I kept the conversation on the recorder for a few years after the interview. Daniel passed away a few months later in a car accident. It was a devastating loss for the Murray State community. This article was the last article about Daniel before he passed away. I cherish my memories with Daniel especially this article and that interview.

https://thenews.org/2012/12/06/students-form-male-female-a-capella-music-groups/

Conclusion

Writing for the school newspaper was quite the experience. I actually do not remember writing most of the articles because it was so long ago. I was shocked to find some of the articles online. It is a bit surreal that I wrote articles that I have no memory of writing. However, this job gave me an opportunity to use the writing skills that I had learned in my journalism classes during my time at Murray State.

https://murraystatenews.org/10973/features/department-edits-mozart-for-children/

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/how-to-obtain-33-jobs-in-17-years/