When I was just an 8-year-old girl, I remember parading around telling anyone who would listen that one day I was going to be a network anchor. I undoubtedly annoyed everyone in my path with my incessant question-asking and pretend reporting.
As the years passed, the dream stayed the same: to live in New York and work at the network level.
While some girls wished on stars for men to sweep them off their feet, I prayed, wished and hoped for a network exec to come calling.
The past nine years I've missed countless weddings, funerals, parties and celebrations to work. It was all in hopes of being in the right place at the right time. It has finally happened.
On a sunny Thursday afternoon during a commercial break on the "D-List," I received the call Iʼd been waiting for my entire life. I got an offer to be a New York-based anchor for MLB Network. I accepted the job.
For years I have dreamed of what that moment would be like. In my mind, the scene always played out with me jumping, screaming, and hugging anyone within reach. The reality was a lot different.
I love Milwaukee. My family and friends are here. After a decade-plus of meeting men who never made it past the first or second date test, I have a boyfriend. I love the Brewers and Bucks and everyone I work with. So when I got the call I had always been waiting for, my excitement was tempered by a sadness of knowing Iʼd have to leave home again. (I plan to continue writing for OnMilwaukee.com, as a Milwaukee girl tries to make it in Manhattan.)
I never seriously considered not taking the job, but I definitely didnʼt enjoy the fruits of my labor during the first 24-48 hours. I felt like the timing was all wrong. Why had I not been offered a job like this when I was living in Pittsburgh? What if I leave town and the friendships and relationships I have worked hard to start -- and restore -- faded with the distance?
Then I thought back to that 8-year-old girl with her blond pigtails and makeshift microphone. How could I let her down just because the adult version was a little scared? People work their entire lives and never achieve a childhood dream; mine is coming true.
Trenni Kusnierek is a sports reporter and radio host who has worked for networks such as ABC, Big Ten, MLB, and NFL. She is currently on 540 ESPN in Milwaukee on both the D-List and Broad Side. Kusnierek is also freelance writing and reporting until January, when she will leave on a service trip to India.
A graduate of Marquette University, she holds a degree in Broadcast and Electronic Journalism. An avid marathon runner, Kusnierek qualified for the 2010 Boston Marathon by running a 3:37:02 at the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee.
