Step Out on Nothing by Byron Pitts

Author:Byron Pitts
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312577667
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

NINE

It Never Gets Easier—You

Just Get Stronger

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

—James 1:2–4

WHERE’S THE BEER?” PHIL Smith was holding the door to my refrigerator open, staring at its contents, which consisted of a single large plastic jug of sweet tea, a carton of eggs, and a well-used bottle of Tabasco sauce.

“I don’t drink,” I said.

Standing six feet six and north of 250 pounds, Phil looked around with a disgusted look on his face. “You are such a loser,” he said. Everyone in the room laughed.

It was Norfolk, Virginia, 1984. I had invited several friends from my new job at television station WAVY-TV over to my apartment for pizza and a college football bowl game. We were all young and single and working jobs we loved in a great city. It was a collegial group. Since many of us had begun our television careers in smaller markets, like my experience in Greenville, Norfolk was a step into big-city news. After an intense week, the favorite wind-down activity was a night of conversation about work, listening to music, dancing, lots of laughter, and alcohol. I was not a drinker and never learned to dance, so I was often the odd man out on those occasions. This particular night, it became clear just how different I really was. After the football game was over, one of my friends suggested that we watch a movie. They started going through my pile of VHS tapes next to the television. Much to their surprise, every single tape in the stack was a recording of a network newscast.

My closest friend in the group shook his head and announced, “You really are a loser.” Even I laughed this time.

Back in college, that’s the way many friends would affectionately label me at parties—a loser. “He doesn’t drink, and he can’t dance” was how many male friends would introduce me to their female friends. To which I would respond, “But I will graduate on time.” By my early twenties, being considered an outsider was a badge of honor. I was used to it, almost preferred it that way. For the longest time I had always felt that it was God, Clarice, and me against the world. Now that I lived in a different city, mostly it was just God and me, and God was doing all the heavy lifting. That is one big reason why I have often been alone but never lonely.

My faith was just one of the things that made me feel different from my colleagues. There were professional differences as well. The goal of many reporters is to be the station’s next anchorman or anchorwoman. Not me. I wanted to be a reporter, eventually at the network level, and knew that it was going to take a singleminded focus to become the best in the business.

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