In August I move to Nome, Alaska to work at KNOM Radio
Mission as their Public Affairs Director. I have never worked in radio. I have
never reported news. I have never been to Alaska. I had never heard of Nome
before reading the job posting. Furthermore, when I said I wanted to travel
every crumb of the planet, that statement did not include the subarctic tundra.
So why am I going? Simply because when I read the six-sentence
job posting online, the compass in my gut that had been spinning for months found
North. That was March 2013.
At that time I was working as a Professional Directing
Intern at a theatre in California. Since arriving at the theatre in October, an
unshakeable, un-ignorable feeling churned solid and jagged in my gut, chanting
I was to depart from theatre, at least temporarily, after my internship ended
in June.
Leaving theatre was akin to me breaking up with my fiancé. I
had become interested in theatre in grade school, began dating it in middle
school, began seriously dating it in high school, and became engaged in
college. The California internship was me walking down the aisle. I had dedicated
my dreams, education, and time, so much time, a decade of time to its pursuit. I
had logged my 10,000 hours. I had chosen my college based on its theatre program.
I had traveled across an ocean to study theatre. I understood life through
translating the world into theatre metaphors. When my conviction in God failed,
my conviction in theatre remained. Above all, the entire construction of my future
revolved around theatre. And I was to walk away? What the fuck was all that
time and passion and work for?
After months of rage, confusion, and grief, I threw up my
hands, saying if I’m supposed to walk away, then another door will open, and I
will carry everything I have learned through it.
A week later I read the KNOM posting.
A week later I read the KNOM posting.
