The eagle has landed, fortunately I don’t have much of an appetite for household pets. This time last week I was packing up my life in the frigid Midwest, in the heart of Oil country in a city known as Lloydminster, Alta. and looking forward to pleasant weather, albeit much damper, although much to my surprise, that has not been the case so far.
The past year for me has
been much of a roller coaster
ride. I have had many jobs,
jobs that could be described
as “people person jobs”, bartending predominately, along with a brief stint as a halloween costume sales associate and an even briefer stint as a bouncer at gentlemen’s club.
Ridiculous as that may sound given my physical stature, where I resided when the ‘Patch’ was booming ($100 bar- rels of black gold) these jobs were difficult to staff.
However despite these “people-person” jobs, they were at the end of the day still just jobs, and though I liked the interactions, time and time again they lacked the depth that I longed for.
Rather than true interest in conversation and discussion the axe hanging over every interaction, read plainly, “I’m doing this for a paycheque and the tips.”
It was this fact that brought me back to my senses, and made me realize once and for all that my place in this world is to be a journalist, and one that is approachable and accountable to the communities I serve.
A bit of background on my journalism career, I gradu- ated in the spring of 2013 from the Loyalist College Photojournalism program in Belleville, Ontario, which is about 45 minutes away from my family’s home base of Kingston, Ont. However I was born in Ottawa, Ont., hav- ing been raised on military bases across eastern Ontario. Kingston will be the last posting for my parents after two 27-year army and airforce careers.
After college I accepted a position as a reporter/pho- tographer at the Lloydminster Meridian Booster, a thrice- weekly newspaper, which is where I cut my teeth and to a certain degree lost my way.
Throughout my life I have discovered that I love change, I thrive on it. To be the proverbial ‘stranger in a strange land’, which was the mystique I thought I was entering into when I began my journalism career a little over five years ago. To my surprise however this has been the exact opposite, everywhere I have travelled for work in our beau- tiful land I have rarely been made to feel like a stranger, big hearts across this country never ceases to amaze me, and the Tri-Port Area is certainly no exception.
In my few short days in Port Hardy, I have felt more than welcomed. To be honest I find it funny talking about myself so much, as mentioned above what I enjoy the most about my line of work is engaging with the readership. Which in this day and age means a strong social media presence. I look forward to doing so on all fronts be it through The Gazette’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, and the soon-to-come Instagram account. I encourage anyone reading this to stop me on the street, or reach me through online means and let me know how I did and how I can improve. Your humble reporter Jeff Peters.