It’s something I’ve considered for a couple years. In journalism school at the University of Missouri, my professors and editors often talked about the importance of merging the journalism, business and computer science industries. Only then, they said, can we find a successful future for the journalism industry.

The journalism part is easy for me. But finance? Organizational behavior? Managerial economics? Yikes. I have a lot to learn.

Earning an MBA is the next step for me. Maybe the computer science part will come next.

My newest adventure will be an exciting and challenging one. Here goes nothing.

What a difference a year makes.

It was a little more than a year ago when I boldly walked across Mizzou Arena and accepted my diploma frame cover (the diplomas were actually mailed later — who knew?). The months of April and May 2010 were nothing short of overwhelming. After spending five years earning a bachelor’s degree and racking up thousands in student loans, it was time to enter a bleak job market while journalists were losing their jobs nationwide.

The voice of desperation was clear in my resumes and cover letters, back then. It was a fun discovery while updating my resume today. I don’t think I would have hired anyone that seemed so hopeless-sounding.

But I was able to delete all (I think) of that from my resume. And that’s a testament to how fortunate I’ve been during the past 13 months.

I started and finished an internship with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and now I’m the editor of a local news and information website in St. Louis. More importantly? I share an awesome house in Maplewood with a beautiful (and mostly nerdy) young lady, have a dog that high-fives me daily and somehow find time to play ultimate frisbee and slow-pitch softball weekly. This is the perfect life I always dreamed of while binging on Ramen back in Columbia.

So, what’s next? I’m still learning a lot about St. Louis and its culture (this post is coming to you live from MoKaBe’s Coffeehouse in Tower Grove; a new discovery for this St. Louis noob). Working toward an MBA by enrolling in night classes sounds appealing too, so I’ll spend the next few weeks studying for the GRE. Then I’ll likely apply for Washington University’s program.

And I’ll actually try to blog more. After all, that beautiful lady who I mentioned earlier was kind enough to build the website for me.

For those of you who know me, I’ve been talking about starting this blog for a while now. It’s an idea I developed months ago: Find friends, and friends of friends, and write a team-styled story blog, using quality long-form writing. The posts will allude to literature, pop culture, movies, whatever. You can call it a living memoir — and we’re only getting started.

I’ll still update this blog at times, but not very often.

Cheers,
Ryan