my year of travel and investigation
processing the beauty, magic and lessons of my one year as a fully employed person :)
Dearest Tamia Talkers, Happy Sunday! Join me as I rejoice!
This Substack is certainly for brain dumps, media rewinds, culture catchups, and the like, but, today, it is also for basking in the warm fuzzy feelings of growth and progress that I am currently experiencing as I hit my one-year benchmark of full-time work.
It feels great to return to writing this week feeling semi-at peace with my life and its happenings. Funnily enough, I feel as though I’ve noticed a pattern of quarterly crises that I download onto this platform every couple of months, echo chambers of self-doubt laced with positivity that remind me that I am capable of doing the things I desire.
Though those reflections are all well and good, I am happy to be stepping into fall with more surety about my future and gladness about the year past.
One year and one week ago, I glided into the newsroom of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, thrilled to return to my home city of Milwaukee, to write and report about my community. I wasn’t nervous, at that time, because it was a moment and decision that felt so wholeheartedly right for me.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it dozens of times now, but when I was 13 and I wrote that I wanted to be a journalist in my eighth-grade graduation speech, I also said that I wanted the work I did to serve and improve my community. So, to return home at 23 following stints in D.C. and New York, I felt as though I was sprinting back to a younger version of myself to grab the baton and finish a mission I had set off on nearly a decade ago, patting a younger version of myself on the shoulder and saying “I’ll take it from here.”
I looked forward to learning from newsroom veterans and jumping into my new role as a Public Investigator, fielding tips from community members and trying to write stories that provide accountability for wrongdoing or persistent problems.
I looked forward to meeting my teammates and new coworkers who would funnel into the newsroom in the weeks following my first day. Without knowing at the time, almost every interaction led me to a new friendship, editing buddy, mentor, karaoke partner, or reliably friendly face on a rough day.
This year, I tackled stories about politics, disability, housing, health care, the arts, and sports. I made TikToks and talked to classes of grade school and high school kids about media literacy and civic engagement. I walked miles and miles with protesters, conducting interviews about their calls for change, and sat down with politicians to ask how they would respond to constituents’ demands. I ran into dozens of friends and family while in the field reporting and they told me they had kept up with my reporting or subscribed to our paper.
On a Facetime call with a friend, as I detailed the growing number of journalism conferences and political conventions I would be jetting off to, she deemed the year “Tamia’s year of travel and investigation.” Having bounced between D.C., New York, London, New Orleans, Chicago, and L.A. in the past nine months and written somewhere around 60 stories and counting, I can proudly claim that definition of the year to be true.
It was an incredibly busy and exciting one. I am so happy to have learned and grown so much, so I had to write a bit to appreciate it.
I am sending my congratulatory energy and good vibes to anyone who also completed their first year of work this year. I hope that your first year treated you well and it only gets better from here.
I also send the same good energy to anyone who left a job they didn’t like and is now pursuing something independently that more closely aligns with their goals, dreams, needs, or values. Or, you’re ten, twenty or thirty years into your career and mentoring newcomers like me. Or, you’re job searching and still awaiting the right fit.
The point is, I hope that your next year of existing in a universe that requires us to all have jobs includes taking steps towards being your most fulfilled and fully realized version of yourself and that you are in an environment where people are encouraging you to grow, evolve and expand your knowledge and gift.
I’m keeping it short and sweet today, but I just had to share. Onto year two, I can’t wait to see what it brings.
Also, interviewing Chappell Roan in October 2023…I’ve never slayed harder.
Love,
Your Journalistic Midwest Princess <3
Some stories I wrote…
She waited over a year to get her wheelchair. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, that's typical.
Denied a speaker, pro-Palestinian Democratic delegates make new demand on Kamala Harris
Rising pop star Maude Latour talks new album "Sugar Water" and her love for Wisconsin
His insurance card said out-of-network care was covered. Then, he found out it was a typo.
'Midwest Princess' Chappell Roan talks queerness, girlhood, and growing up
He ordered a revolver, but UPS lost it. How many guns go missing in the mail each year?
so proud of you 🫶🫶