In grade school we are all taught our A, B, C’s, but rarely were we ever tested on our Alfa, Beta, Charlie’s. If you’ve ever been on a phone call having to spell out your name or the email address you created in 8th grade, odds are you had to spell phonetically. When ‘A as in Adam’ and ‘B as in boy’ leave your lips, you’ve just used your own, personal phonetic alphabet. In an increasingly loud world, where the three-second video clip is king and everyone and everything is vying for attention, slowing down and conveying a message clearly us a necessity. Over 100 years ago, a new alphabet was created to help with this very issue – though referenced in pop culture and every day parlance, its inception was mainly to support military operations and aviation. Saying that life is a battlefield, (not love: sorry Pat Benatar), in this sense, is not far off.

Created to Support Military

“Radio communication is where it started,” says Dan Bell, a retired 22-year veteran of the Marine Corps. “I joined the Marines in 1977 and had to memorize it. I had many classes down at Parish Island. It’s kind of like verbal Morse Code.”

And while he’s absolutely right in its most well-known form, the need to incorporate universal phonetic spelling started pre-WWI as a way to support two-way radio communications (both in militarily and for the amateur radio aficionado) and low-quality long-distance telephone circuits.

Uniformity Helps Combat Background Noise

The early 20th century saw the creation of the Amsterdam-Baltimore Alphabet insomuch that the letters were represented by different country names: Amsterdam, Baltimore, Canada, Denmark, etc. Then, post WWII and after years of additional studies, some done here locally at The Ohio State University in Columbus, the Able-Baker Alphabet was adopted with some new phonetics, to better ensure that words sounded different enough when spoken to combat potential background noise and confusion.

“Many sounds are highly confusable within a language,” says Meghan Sumner, a linguistics professor with Stanford University, in a recent interview with Popular Mechanics reporter Kimberly Hickok. For example, the sounds “th” and “f” and very similar (thin, fin) and easy to confuse, as are “m” and “n” sounds, they explain. “Especially in the contexts that are noisy or when you can’t see the talker,” such as over a radio with background noise or interference. The NATO Phonetic alphabet helps avoid that ambiguity and makes it clear what the letters are, Hickok reported.

Alphabet Was Made Universal

Named after the organization that first approved its broad use, (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the alphabet was standardized to ensure its functionality more broadly.

“Across languages, speakers might hear a sound, but map it onto a different sound category in their own language, especially in context of background noises,” Sumner says. “For example, the Spanish pronunciation of the letter “P” sounds very similar to the English pronunciation of the letter “B.” This could cause issues when communicating the names of the people or places to someone who may not be familiar with those names in the other language, Hickok reported.

“Working with other countries [we] needed familiar language,” further explains Dan Bell. The variety of changes that have been applied over the last almost 100 years to this and other similar phonetic alphabets were done so with the arc of universality to compensate for the differing linguistic tendencies in other countries. Relative to global miliary alliances, its importance in the field cannot be understated as a bridge between countries, though also with a nod to uniformity among American military branches themselves.

“When you communicate in the field, you’ll have the Navy and the Army in the same area [and] when you have joint operations you have to have the same alphabet,” Bell states.

Ironically, in daily use, at least one universally adopted word is officially spelled differently than pop culture conveys: Alpha is actually spelled Alfa.

Similarly, the pronunciations are different that most would have you believe: Lima = LEE MAH; Qubec = KEH BECK; Victor = VIK TAH.

Keep in mind, this alphabet differs in usage, but holds a similar mode of messaging conveyance with other types of speech. For example, acronyms, which are abbreviations of a name or multiple words used as a word itself, like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), or initialism, which are abbreviations consisting of initial letters pronounced separately, (LOL = Laugh Out Loud, FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out, or CPU = Computer Processing Unit).

So next time someone asks to spell a street name or confirm an alphanumeric license plate, remember the NATO Phonetic Alphabet when speaking with the local customer service representative. Papa-Sierra: There is an alphabet for numbers, too.

Commonly Referenced Phonetic Alphabet Phrases:

Well-known Berlin Wall access point between East and West Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie is actually Checkpoint – C

Oscar Mike = On the Move

Lima Company from Brook park, Ohio is actually Company – L, who are the third battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment (See: Lima Company Memorial at the Ohio Statehouse)

Fans of the History Channel Show The Curse of Oak Island might hear brothers Rick and Marty Lagina refer to buried treasure as ‘Bravo Tango’

Link to websites to grab a table of current NATO Phonetic Alphabet and the one for numbers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a39297126/origin-of-the-nato-phonetic-alphabet/

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I thrive on routine – plans, schedules, calendarized events, and Post-it notes. It’s how I roll; I’m a list person. However, complacency can sometimes be the enemy of growth. Routine can be helpful if managed, but left unchecked, can pull us down the rabbit hole of monotony for a long time.

Christmastime helps to break those routine cycles. At least for me, starting with Thanksgiving, life seems to shift into overdrive and feels like a whirlwind until January 2. Family – food – buying presents … family – food – opening presents – family – midnight – recovery. It can be a grind at times. The key to getting through it all and recovering after is introspection. That is to say, time to think.

Unfortunately, for most men, we’re so bent on action and task completion, we seldom leave time for ourselves. That ends this year.

Sometimes the holidays can bring out the best in us, and sometimes the worst. In either scenario, it can be hard to confront those things in each of us that we don’t want to admit are true, or make up our character, when we wish they didn’t. We can see what others have that we don’t; we can see what others don’t have and are unfairly without; we can get bogged down by the desire for justification when no obvious one exists.

Ultimately without fail, what the holiday season provides is an annual time of reflection. I know, I know: everyone says it, but within each stereotype is a kernel of truth. How much time do you take to think about you? Are you happy with you? Are you where you want to be? Are you the man you want to be; the friend you want to be; the student, the brother, the son, the husband you want to be? If yes, that’s great! I’m sure it took some time to get there. Life takes work. If you answered “No” to any one of these questions, it’s not too late to take the time to reflect and, if desired, enact change.

Men: Seriously, there’s still time. If you’re reading this, the buzzer has not yet been beaten, no one has walked off and won (I only have sports references, apparently) and the fat lady is still in the green room, warming up.

It is commonly believed that it takes about three weeks – 21 days – to create a habit. Of course, depending on the complexity, frequency, and state of mind of the habit former, that timeline is flexible. Here’s an example: a new nightly routine could take a few weeks, while a new exercise regimen could take a few months. Suffice it to say, for most tasks and most taskmasters, habit-forming takes time and repetition, but the first step is always the same: decisiveness. Make the decision that change is needed, warranted, and valid.

For me, it can be making time with family or time by myself to do things I enjoy. I love to read; haven’t cracked a book since March. I love to write, but this is the first thing I’ve written in months. I enjoy running, but I’ve worn my running shoes for family events only this year. I enjoy cycling and recently had to fill up the bike tires solely because I didn’t want to ruin the tires, not because I was preparing for a ride. My wife and I really enjoy playing Xbox, but we got rid our last system because we said we didn’t have the time. The family hasn’t been hiking in a year. It gets depressing, but life can come fast and hard without care or compassion. Time flies – it truly does. So, strap on your wings; we’ve got some gliding to do.

STEP ONE: Schedule time to get your house in order. I’ve taken care of the “have-to” things before they’ve truly become emergencies or missed deadlines/obligations.

STEP TWO: I’ve said no to those requests and asks that would have taken up time I needed for me or other important things (see above). I was not able to attend that particular after-hours meeting; I wouldn’t commit to delivering an ask because I simply didn’t have the time. I do not recall where I heard it first, but Steve Jobs is credited as saying, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” That is to say, schedule your time wisely. Do you really have time to go out with friends tonight? F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out) is real. I get it, but the world won’t stop turning if you miss one night with friends. Prioritization is key.

STEP THREE: Make time, hold on to it, and guard the time you set aside for that which you deem important. Eventually you will be asked to compromise, but hold true. You will not get that time back. Funnily enough, most New Year’s resolutions fail around the third week of January – right when new habits could be taking hold. The key is this: Have patience and confidence in yourself and your decision.

STEP FOUR: Be OK with setbacks. We recently wrapped up Christmas (pun intended) – the season of perpetual hope, but sometimes our best intentions don’t go as planned. Fail by February; start again in March. Fail in April; reset for a fresh start in May. Perpetuity refers to a continual existence. Perpetual hope – a continual hope – of potential change, if you want. But only if you want. Do not let the world dictate that need. Only you can. You can turn it around if you want to turn it around.

Frank Cross in Scrooged turned it around; as did Ebenezer Scrooge, the character upon which Frank is loosely based. Albeit, their realizations came in more dramatic fashion, but they were shown their needs and that they weren’t the men who they could be – who they should be for those around them. Some propose that Phil Connors in Groundhog Day took ten years to figure out his true self.

Any of the previously mentioned steps could have a mid-step added, defined as “with a companion – friend or family” because having an accountability partner is also key to success. Look up “accountability partner” and you’ll return all types of alliterative answers espousing the benefits of paired progress. Regardless, the common theme is that the more people who know your goal, the more likely you are to succeed. It takes a village. In some cases, change can be affected on an individual basis, but in most cases, it takes partnership in some aspect: a friend helping a friend, wife helping a husband, girlfriend helping a boyfriend. We’re all in this together, so it benefits everyone if one of us succeeds in a positive way.

At the end of the day, if you’re doing what you can with what you have in a positive way for you and those around you, then you are enough. The holiday season can be a time of reflection for change, but should also be a time of reflection for support. The world has a way of telling us that more is better. More food, more clothes, bigger cars, bigger houses, more presents, more TV, more, more, more.

Hedonic adaptation refers to a psychological “desensitivity” where we eventually return to a baseline level of happiness after new stimulus is introduced. Meaning, the more we have only temporarily gives us that dopamine burst in the reward centers of the brain.

We all have a baseline happiness level we should strive to maintain. Getting more and more only feeds into the need for more and more, never being satiated with what we have. Sometimes less is more; sometimes enough is enough. But you: You are always enough as you are. Do you feel like you are? Because you are. I’m telling you: You. Are. Enough.

As men, we are looked at stereotypically in a variety of ways, but for a lot of us, we don’t fit that construct. We are us – not them. We are who we are, not who we are told to be. Men: it’s OK to be insecure, and it’s OK to be confident; it’s OK to try, and it’s OK to fail; it’s OK not to be a leader, and it’s OK to lead; it’s OK not to want to go to college, and it’s OK to go to University; it’s OK to be you. Just be secure in what that means.

Change is possible; perpetual hope is a theme of the season. But perpetual confidence is knowing that what you bring to the table is worthy, as well. The holidays aren’t the only time for reflection, and realizing this is beneficial, but for those on the fence or looking for a place to start, the timing is perfect. Use this season to review you; decide who you are, what makes you happy and carpe diem – seize the day. There’s no better time than today.

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Perception Critical

Gen Z workers don’t know how to dress professionally, have unreasonable salary and wage demands, and can’t make eye contact, according to a recent article from Angelica Stabile, with Fox Business, which noted a December 2023 survey of 800 U.S. hiring managers, directors, and executives. But is this true? In the same article, Joe Mull, career expert and author of “Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work,” said the narrative is not new.

“The idea that younger workers are less equipped, more entitled or less motivated is generational trope as old as time itself.” He adds, “These unflattering perceptions of the workers coming in behind us are the same perceptions that older workers had about us when we arrived at the workplace.”

The Response

Philosophical differences and access to new technology could be contributing factors to how Gen Z is perceived in the workplace, writes Aimee Pearcy, in a recent Business Insider article. There are many reasons why Gen Z could be approaching work differently, and thus, prompting the perception of laziness.

She notes several main themes, including the following:

• They aren’t fulfilled at work: employers lack of flexibility to allow working from home, post pandemic
• They’re considering new alternative types of work: the traditional 9-to-5 is being viewed as outdated, with the advent of the gig economy and other jobs that new technologies have to offer
• Baby Boomers are staying in the workforce longer: the generational transition of work responsibility seems to be taking a long time, and with more experienced workers remaining in the workforce, employers aren’t moving to mentorships of newer workers quickly enough
• They are prioritizing work/life balance: determining the ROI (return on investment) of 40 hours in an office while being asked to remain on-call during “off” hours has become a determining factor of selecting employment

Be Prepared

As a Gen Z individual, breaking the perception of laziness and pushing through the troupe of unpreparedness, how can you apply to the right positions and ensure you are ready to take that job offer when it’s presented?

On-the-spot job hiring used to be one of several regular methods of employment for companies, and its frequency of use is certainly embellished in modern entertainment. Though it may be considered an outdated norm, some employers today still use it when the need is there.

Local Employer Weighs In

“In cases where a candidate is well-qualified or we urgently need associates, we do consider hiring on the spot,” writes Russ Wilson, Human Resources Manager at Velvet Ice Cream, the 100-year-old company in Utica, in a recent email interview. “We typically conduct two interviews for positions in upper management or similar roles.

“Velvet’s approach to hiring on the spot is driven by the specific needs of the position and the demand at that moment,” Wilson wrote. “It’s advisable for candidates to familiarize themselves with Velvet’s brand, understand the responsibilities of the position they’re applying for.”

J.T. O’Donnell, described as a corporate worker-turned career coach, noted in a recent Kristen Altus Fox Business article, that big job boards – like Indeed or Zip Recruiter – are magnets for job seekers, and the ratio of applicants to hires is low because “everyone else is doing the same thing.” O’Donnell suggests flipping a mindset from job seeker to job shopper, where one trims the field of potential applications down to a manageable number and “shops” vertically in particular industries or businesses. This means focusing on jobs in food service, or administrative work, or a specific type of sales industry rather than a scatter shot of applications to see what resonates.

The key is to highlight strengths effectively and efficiently, which could mean trying to secure an in-person, face-to-face interview or by a resume submission. “We don’t mandate resumes for every position, but we strongly encourage applicants to submit one. A resume helps certain candidates stand out and expedites the hiring process,” Wilson wrote. As with most employers, the entire exercise is about making it easy for the employer and potential employee, designed to be straightforward and accessible.

Wilson also wrote of Velvet’s approach: “Applicants can apply online through our website, Indeed, or social media. They are also welcome to visit our headquarters for in-person applications. We aim to streamline the process, allowing qualified applicants to start promptly within our company.”

Ultimately, the more prepared one is for an interview, the greater the likelihood one could receive the ever-elusive on-the-spot offer.

Time for Action

In June, Jack Kelly, with Forbes, wrote about how to stand out in a job interview. The top takeaway items in his list include the following:

• Do Your Homework – Research the company and be proficient with the job description and requirements and how you fit
• First Impressions Count – Dress appropriately for the interview and be polite
• Small Talk – Listen to the banter and connect with the interviewer through a commonality
• Mirror the Hiring Manager – speak as the interviewer speaks – cadence and tone
• Eyes on the Interviewer – Do not dart your eyes – keep focused (even in virtual interviews)
• Let the Interviewer Know You’re Interested – Managers want someone to hire soon; you’re there for a job – make sure they know it
• Be Authentic – Be comfortable and be yourself – don’t “fake it until you make it”
• Call to Action – Pitch yourself and your qualifications – ask about next steps

Brush up the resume (or start one) and make sure you’ve done your homework before sending in that application or writing that initial email. Doing this will increase the chance that when you walk out the door of that business, you’ll have a job.

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Passion equals purpose and locally, C-TEC has been molding the passion of local learners into a valued and necessary workforce for almost 50 years. The Career & Technology Centers of Licking County, more commonly known as C-TEC, is coming up on its golden anniversary of building the talent pool of Licking County’s trade school graduates.

Recently, I had the privilege of talking with Brian Wilfong, communications coordinator for C-TEC of Licking County, about how trade schools compare with traditional four-year institutions and some of the things high-school students and adults should consider when looking for a refresher or change of profession.

What are some of the current growing/popular/trending areas of study?

Public service is doing really well right now. I find that very interesting. Paramedic, EMT, firefighting. There has been an uptick in that. Health care has always been a pretty popular field. The skilled trades right now – there’s a huge emphasis on that. We’ve been pushing that for years, … but just in the ten years that I’ve been here, we’ve seen a significant increase to the number of people interested in those. CNC machining (Computer Numerical Control), robotics, automation, welding, things like that. In fact, of the things that we really have to focus on with our students is that they’re coming to us in those fields specifically, and they’re getting the skills and getting the certifications, and the employers want them to come work for them even before the complete the program. It’s ‘Oh, hey you’ve got the skills and we can work with you from there.’ So, we’re fighting to say, ‘No, no, no. Stay here and get it done. You’ve just got two months left and then go. Complete it.’

So, it’s just the demand of the industry?

The demand is so great.

And of course, IT (Information Technology) is massive and IT is one of those fields where honestly, I’ve sat in panel discussions and I’ve watched CEOs and different IT firms here in Central Ohio who have said, ‘I don’t care if you have a Ph.D. or if you have a GED, if you have these certifications – and they rattled some of them off – I will hire you.’ The end.

Because the certification tests are difficult, which is why we teach them the skill set. … The certification is proof you know how to do this. And that’s the emphasis, especially in those IT fields.

How would you compare C-TEC or trade schools to a typical four-year university?

Well, number one obviously, we don’t take four years.

Most … of our programs are completed in a year. Most of our programs are certificate-bearing. So, there’s options for multiple certifications and articulations at the end of or during those programs. And obviously, cost is a huge factor. We are not anywhere close to the cost of traditional … four-year and higher institutions.

A lot of our programs articulate with two-year degrees. So, you do the first year of your program here and then you might move on to COTC (Central Ohio Technical College) for your second year and to complete the degree. We are part of what they call the … post-secondary pathway. So you can start a degree here; you do not earn a degree at C-TEC, post-secondary, but it can be part of a … degree-bearing path. So, the cost and the time and really the environment are probably the three most significant factors in terms of the difference between a traditional four-year institution.

I will say that it’s very, very rare that someone comes to our post-secondary center and doesn’t know what they’re going for. And, of course, that’s not the case for a lot of the four-year institutions. I mean, when I went for my undergraduate degree, I had no idea what I was going for my freshman year and not only did I not know, the school encouraged me to not know. It said, ‘Do your Gen Eds (General Education Requirements – prerequisites to declaring a major and taking major-related coursework) and see what happens.’ So that’s a big difference, too.

You touched on it [earlier]: ‘Would one enter a trade school without an area of study in mind?’ Do you have guidance counselor-type individuals for somebody who is thinking about it … in high school and needs somebody to talk through it?

We do. And that’s not something that’s specifically isolated to our post-secondary center. We have district-level positions; we call them career development coordinators, and there are a couple of them. They … visit or they actually have hours set up at every public school in Licking County. Those career development coordinators’… job is to be a career counselor.

You know, if there is a second-grader that says they want to be a doctor, then there needs to be someone saying to them, well, this is what that entails. We say all the time here, ‘Careers come later, but the works starts now.’ We’re not talking about pressuring second-graders who want to be doctors into higher-level math and all that, but we should be very honest with them at the appropriate level about what that means, what that looks like. Because honestly, even 7th and 8th grade, if you’ve not thought about something that requires a lot of post-secondary education before then, the chances of you going and successfully completing that field aren’t good. The stats back that up.

How would you “sell” a trade school education to someone discerning between that and a 4-year university?

Well, it’s all about immediate goal and return on investment. So, that student needs to know what it is that they want. Again, we’re not knocking traditional pathways, we’re just saying you need to know what your pathway is. And if the career path that this person is interested in can be accomplished in less time for less money, all the while in an institution like ours where business and industry are on site, where we’re there, where we partner with them to develop curriculum, … then why wouldn’t you do that?

If your desired career path requires a four-year degree, well then, we’re not appropriate. If you want to go into law, if you want to go into medicine, then you need to go that route. Some of our programs in the health-care field, you could start here and end up there. It depends on the field. And in that case, you can get a certification here that you might need that’s relevant to your degree field, use that certification to be employed in that field while you continue the rest of the higher-education path. That’s obviously a path also, and it will save you money because we’re significantly cheaper. Even just one year here is significantly cheaper than one year someplace else.

And classes in a trade school are – I’ll say sometimes, but really, I think the truth is – always much smaller than they are at a traditional four-year institution. And for some students that’s needed.

What is the admissions process?

If a student has a program they are interested in, they can contact us through the website which is https://www.c-tec.edu/on the post-secondary side and we will really work them one-on-one to remove any barriers. Sometimes they are financial, sometimes they’re work, they’re schedule related, things like that. If they don’t have a diploma or GED, we can work with them to get that, and they can get that here. GEDs are not issued to us, but we have classes and whatnot that we can get them to that threshold. And every student needs to take … aptitude tests for our full-time programs which finds out skill levels … and where they are and if they need remedial help. They complete the FAFSA® (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), just as you would with a traditional four-year institution or two-year institution. Again, we assist with that. That helps them, of course, for financial aid. And then depending on the programs they’re in and when the start dates are, we work with them on enrollments. The nice thing is that when a student contacts us and says ‘I’m interested,’ we make sure they’re really interested and that they know what it’s about, and then they got one-on-one help through the rest of that process. They would have a phone number; they would have a name of an individual who would help guide them through that.

“Traditional” universities are typically assessed a four-year graduation time frame. How do trade schools compare?

Most of our full-time programs are completed within 12-14 months, from start to finish. And there are some short-term I’m-just-coming-in-for-some-certification-type options – STNA (State Tested Nurse Aide), things like that – but full-time programs are typically 12-14 months.

Is there anything else you want to leave us with? Anything we missed?

We have such a robust university system in Ohio, and that’s not the case in a lot of places. Post-secondary education is important and we are a part of that.

* Author’s note: Interview answers and questions have been edited for both length and clarity.

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Education is fundamental. Over the last century, continuing a formal course of study post high school has been the next step for a growing number of American graduates. Enrollment in higher education has increased for both traditional college and trade schools (The Atlantic, March 2019), both checking in at or above 16 million students, as of 2014. College degrees can provide a wider range of academia, leading to almost $18,000 a year more in earnings compared to a non-degree worker (Forbes, May 2023), while trade schools can narrow a focus of study and allow a graduate the ability to enter the workforce earlier with a cheaper cost of entry, (Forbes, February 2022). Each route has its list of pros and cons, but for me, college was about exploration, figuring out who I was, and the journey that made it all worthwhile.

The Starting Line

My younger years were spent trying to fit in among a group of friends, but still feeling fringy. My high school was relatively small, so the thought of attending a large university or college was both exciting and daunting.

I viewed college as an opportunity for reinvention and inclusion.

I had a passion for film studies and an interest in architecture – two fairly unrelated subjects, but I knew in order to understand what suited me best I would need to find a school large enough to allow for a broad array of opportunity. After finding “the” school, university didn’t arrive on my doorstep. I had to work for it.

The Means

I did not come from a family of immense means so figuring out how to make earning a college degree a reality was challenging. Ultimately, the money told me I would live at home and commute to campus, saving a ton of cash. That, combined with a variety of grants and a part-time job, I was able to make the finances work. I would potentially miss out on the other romanticized aspects of dorm life, but that’s a part of the sacrifice. Just being able to attend was enough. I was going to work my way through university and attend classes through the summer, if able. I was determined to make something of myself, whatever that something was going to be.

The Explorer

As those first few semesters ground along while I studied general prerequisites, the explorer in me grew legs. So, to quell my film studies bug, I joined with the local campus television station and worked a boom mic for a student-led production. At the time, that creative process ultimately produced a product I didn’t feel was worthwhile. Similarly, with architecture, the potential thrill of the physical manifestation wasn’t enough to compete with a waning interest of the mathematical application. Neither of my originally anticipated paths was going to progress. I was back to square one, but I was committed. As Joe Dirt says – “Keep on, keepin’ on.”

The Starting Line: Chapter Two

Always a student of feedback, I would often solicit critique about my writing to ensure clarity and focus. After one arduous writing session for a prerequisite English paper, I heard: “This is really good. Have you considered journalism?” The answer was no. I had always enjoyed writing as a hobby, but nothing more. In this moment illuminated before me was a previously unsigned path. Several months of discernment and it was decided – public affairs journalism was my new route, and it fit.

The Focus of the Journey

The task was now the finish line. My explorer mentality left no stone unturned. I took classes from astronomy and theatre to philosophy and economics. Along the way I picked up political science as a second major.

Journalism allowed me to write for and ultimately become a section editor of the university newspaper. Not only did I edit wire stories (publicly available articles written by a variety of journalists from across the country) for my section, but I wrote opinion pieces, took photos that appeared on the front page, and landed a paid job as a teaching assistant in a beginning journalism class.

As a college journalist, I wrote pieces on a multitude of issues. It was an education within an education. I had taken the opportunities presented to me and found what made me happy.

The Point

No two college experiences are the same. Similarly, not all are met with immediate success or inclusion. While some of my friends went on to write for big publications, attend prestigious sporting events, or land jobs in television, I did not. However, my learned skills never ceased to be an important aspect of who I was – who I am.

Writing has helped me in every job I’ve held after graduating. Political science and journalism have helped my service in the public sector, in elected office and on appointed commissions and boards, utilizing the interviewing and researching techniques I learned in college. My degree has without a doubt been a catalyst for my past and current successes.

College might not be in the cards for every single person for a variety of unique reasons, but I will champion its cause as a path worth careful, measured and sincere consideration. Colleges and universities are broad institutions on purpose, and offer a wide variety of academic potential. Trade schools narrow the field of study to focus on a vocation.

The question is this: Do you know what you want? Broad strokes of the brush at least allow you the ability to explore and venture into areas that might not have been known paths of interest.

As with any investment, I look at what it cost me to commit my time, talent, and treasure to those four years. The return on that investment will continue to pay dividends for the rest of my life.

Editor’s Note: In future editions, we’ll explore trade schools in Licking County.

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