My adventures as a morning anchor continue. I'll be sharing the story behind my transition from sports to news on my blog here at thepittsburghchannel.


I recently got an e-mail invitation to come back for my 20th high school reunion ( That's right, I'm 38 ). Unlike many of you, I have to travel a distance to go back to school. As my bio mentions, I grew up in Simsbury, Connecticut. A town not unlike your Upper St. Clair or Mount Lebanon. I was one of the few African-Americans at my school, but it never really mattered to me. I enjoyed my high school days and still consider them -- not college -- the best four years of my life.

I went to my 5 and 10 year reunions, but I sense this one will be different. For the 354 members of the class of 1986, the waistlines have grown larger as have the stories of days gone by. It's less about where we are going and more about what we have done. It's a chance to see how different our lives might have been had we ended up with our high school sweethearts and an opportunity to see if our 20-year-old predictions came true.

As a high school student growing up in the mid-80's, I lived in a prosperous and care-free era -- not unlike the 50's were for our parents. I had friends in every group in the high school -- the jocks, the theatre folks, the popular kids and bookworms -- and I was involved in everything from football to the Future Business Leaders of America.

I also learned life lessons that stay with me to this day. I fell in love for the first time in my life and had my heart broken at the same time. I learned how to make good friends and had to make crucial choices for the first time. Most of all, I learned what kind of person I would grow up to be. The things and mannerisms that I display now first surfaced in high school. As I look back now, I don't think I have really changed all that much in the last 20 years though I'm sure my former classmates will tell me those little white lies that we are all told at reunions about how good we look and how we haven't changed a bit.

Finally, I'm a little nervous about going back home. It's been a decade since I last stop by the town of Simsbury. Sure, I have achieved some success and I'm sure all my former classmates will ask me about what it's like to cover the Steelers and be on television. But I'm nervous because I don't know what it will be like to reintroduce myself to people I haven't seen in a decade. People that I shared so much with during such a critical time in my life.

The reunion takes places October 14th. I'll let you know -- right here on my blog -- how the trip back in time turns out.