Longterm night owl becoming morning person, but still in journalism

KINGSPORT — I'm not a morning person, but I recently have started the metamorphosis of maybe becoming one.Case in point: As I write this, I sit in an empty newsroom early the morning of Friday, Jan. 10. I've been here since 7:11 a.m. but was second in the building, the best I could tell since Ron Hood in Circulation said he arrived at 7 a.m. I saw another employee stirring shortly before 8 a.m., and another came in about 8 a.m.OK, so you've figured out this isn't my normal type of Behind the Blackboard column, but bear with me. It will make sense.WHY SO EARLY?I'm in early trying to beat the snow that's coming in the afternoon, according to multiple weather forecasts. From my desk, I can see a print displayed in a hallway of the Blizzard of 1993, "Snow this deep buries us all" from a Kingsport Times News front page. The six-column-wide photo in the March 13-14 edition shows people pushing a pickup truck in the snow.As I work in 2025, posting articles on social media and getting stories ready for editing later today, I think back to how I ended up in this business.THIRD PERSON TALEAt the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1983, a young and naïve freshman with a full head of hair named Rick Wagner took at Introduction to Communications Class. He had started his freshman year in 1982. He still might be naive, but the full head of hair has been replaced by baldness.He was from Surgoinsville, of all places, in Hawkins County, and the only city in the world with that name, sort of a real Hooterville from the old "Green Acres" television show. He went to Hooterville, err Surgoinsville Elementary School, Surgoinsville High and then to Volunteer High, when Church Hill and Surgoinsville highs merged to form Volunteer.He also had the dreaded "undeclared" major in liberal arts. He always knew he wanted to go to college, something his parents made sure he understood clearly from a young age with repeated reminders as he advanced in school.He liked the idea of being in communications in general and print journalism in particular. He started taking reporting classes, and soon went to work, actually volunteering in the beginning at The Daily Beacon, UT's student and editorially independent newspaper.At the end of his sophomore year, he declared his major as communications in the College of Communications, now the College of Communications and Speech, with a news-editorial emphasis.Fast forward: He became managing editor and eventually editor of the paper, graduating in 1987 but not before attending the inaugural Institute on Political Journalism in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1985, when he worked splicing open reel tape for radio shows by the Voice of America.The next year, 1986, he became a U.S. congressman's press secretary intern through the now-defunct Sears Congressional Internship program. Some peers thought he'd become a politician's press secretary, but that was not to be.(I always liked Sears tools and vehicle batteries, but I digress. I still miss Sears and Kmart.)BACK IN FIRST PERSON FOR GOODI've always heard that if you love your job you won't really "work" a day in your life. I must love journalism because I have stuck with it since 1987, or 1984 if you count the college paper.To be truthful, I feel like I've worked, but I can't imagine having a job that I did not like. Not every day, every week or even every year, but overall for the long haul.Anyway, before graduation I landed an internship at The Nashville Banner starting in June of 1987, right after graduation from UT. I was the last of the intern group of six to leave in late September and could have stayed on until a job became open, but I had no benefits, no vacation and made $230 a week.After Banner owner Irby Simpkins fired Managing Editor Joe Worley while Worley was on a family vacation in Egypt, he decided it was time to move on. Kelly Leiter, the dean of the College of Communications in 1987, told him to apply at the Jackson Sun and the Bristol Herald Courier.I'm still waiting for a call back from the Sun, but Herald Courier Managing Editor John Molly (who had worked for the Kingsport paper before that and later worked for the Johnson City Press before retiring) practically hired me over the phone since one of his reporters was pregnant with twins and told by a doctor she had to have bed rest until the birth.I gained benefits, eventual vacation time and made $230 a week. Plus, I went from a one-bedroom apartment renting for $305 a month to a two-bedroom townhouse apartment in Bristol, Tennessee, renting for $305 a month.My last Friday night at the Banner, I stayed until the press run was over for the Saturday morning paper — the only day the paper published in the morning, since it was an afternoon paper that printed afternoons Monday through Friday and mornings on Saturday. It ceased publication in 1999 when the Tennessean, which had a joint operating agreement with the Banner, bought Simpkins out.Anyway, I worked at the Herald Courier from October of 1987 until November of 2004, covering police, public safety, courts and general assignments, along with features, until landing on the Sullivan County and politics beat in June of 1989.TRIAL BY FIREIn a Sullivan County Commission meeting that lasted from 9 a.m. to after 11 p.m., with a lunch and bathroom breaks but no supper break, I learned a lot about Sullivan County government. I learned the names and faces of almost all 24 commissioners and wrote about a property tax rate increase that passed shortly before 11 p.m., with more agenda items waiting after that.I also goofed up and wrote that then-County Executive Keith Westmoreland voted to break a tie to increase the property tax rate. He told the commission he would do that, but the commission after multiple votes had the bare minimum 13 votes to do it without Westmoreland's help.Lesson learned: You learn more from your mistakes than your successes.I'll never forget late Commissioner A.B. Arrington of Kingsport voted for the raise, saying he really didn't mean to do so but declining to change his vote to no and force another tax rate vote.I also began covering the Sullivan school board, which eventually set the stage for my current position of being an education writer.POST BRISTOLAfter I left the Bristol paper in 2004, in April of 2005 I joined the Kingsport Times News staff to cover business. In 2009, I moved to education at the behest of City Editor Stephanie McClellan and stayed, although I still do some features, business, general assignment and an occasional Behind the Blackboard column, among other things.At first, this was just supposed to be a temporary thing, covering some school board meetings and issues, but I soon immersed myself in grades K-12 education focusing on Kingsport City Schools and Sullivan County Schools, along with some college coverage.You see, I'm the black sheep of the family, where nearly everybody worked even if for just a bit for a school system or Eastman Chemical Co., formerly Tennessee Eastman. My mother even did both.I've been an education writer since 2009, and although at times it really feels like work, I have a hard time imagining doing anything else. Stephanie retired, as did Managing Editor Ted Como. Rob Walters joined the paper, first as managing editor and then as content director for all of Six Rivers Media LLC.That's what Sandusky Enterprises became, but it is still owned by the Rau family, and Allen Rau is in the building more often than not.EARLY RISER IN 1964, 2025As I sit here ready to turn 61 Feb. 8, I can't help but recall that I was born about 7:30 a.m. on a snowy February morning at Holston Valley Community Hospital and went home a few days later with more than a foot of snow on the ground, according to my late parents.The next day in 1964, on a Sunday evening, the Beatles made their or its first appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show," depending on if your interpretation of grammar thinks a band is a them or an it.Maybe that's why I've been a Beatles fan since early high school, literally being a child of the 1960s.I recently begin to realize, like surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, I've got more time behind me that ahead of me, both in my career and in life. But I believe I still have some work left in me and hope to enjoy journalism, even at 7:11 in the morning awaiting a storm with sleep in my eyes.Coworkers gave me strange stares when they saw me so early, including General Manager Tim Archer, fellow reporters Anna Adams and Allison Winters Gilbert and Rhonda Givens in Advertising. Amy Bartosik in customer service also got here early.NOW FOR THE BIG CLOSEOne other thing: A coworker who came in about 8 a.m., Sabrina Gulley in Advertising, thought I was such an odd sight that early in the morning she offered me an egg, sausage and onion omelet I hope to repay some day. It was good, and so far so has been my journey in journalism.One more thing: When Rob Walters came in the newsroom to enter his office about 8:45 a.m., he looked over at me at the desk and asked: "Did you spend the night?"No, but I've spent almost all my adult working life at a newspaper. Sure, journalism has changed, but I wouldn't trade my career choice even if I could go back in time, although I would like to go back and see the Beatles live in the audience of the Sullivan show Feb. 9, 1964.Anybody got a time machine slot for rent out there come Feb. 9? It would make a great birthday present for me.Rick Wagner is an education writer for the Kingsport Times News, covering mostly grades K-12 education in Sullivan County and Kingsport schools, and a 1987 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.