Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I'm Mary Ann Lennley, former newspaper reporter and columnist and a former county commissioner. I moved to Tallahassee in 1969, right out of college. I went to the University of Missouri. And when I got out of journalism school, there were jobs all over the place. And Florida was famous and well known for some really tremendous newspapers that a lot of good newspapers. And it was beautiful. I remember driving in a long Thomasville road coming into the city and it was just gorgeous. It was August. I said, okay, let's stop at the Tallahassee Democrat. I did and they offered me a job. You could start Monday to develop as a storyteller as a writer. It just takes writing every day, just continuing to write until you get more comfortable with yourself, I think. At some point you think, well, I've been doing this a long time. Newspapers were changing a lot. The opportunity to run for public office came up and I thought I can contribute something here for a few years. I didn't want another career. I knew things that I wanted to really work on that I could do in a different way from just advocating as a writer. The two dark careers, right? Journalism and politics. So what else could you do to make yourself popular? What inspires me is at this time of life, people who need nurturing, people who need support, people who need caring, you never feel better, ever better than when you've made somebody else feel a little bit better. This is Mary Ann Lennley and I guess in closing, I'd like to say that to you all who are out there if I see you in the grocery store and I start asking you questions, take it personally because I really do want to know what's going on in your life. You're listening to voices that inspire.