(Note: Some questions have been edited for clairty.)
Welcome to North Carolina! Have you had Carolina BBQ yet? - @Tom\_Hannigan237
I have not had Carolina BBQ yet. I've heard a lot of good things and I've had a lot of recommendations, but I have not had it yet.
I'm open to more recommendations; I am going to try it.
Any history with North Carolina? Have you been here before outside of work? - @tweetsofcat
Yes! One time and it's actually a really funny story.
So about six years ago, when I first graduated from college, I was visiting a family friend with my dad who had a connection. He was a part of the board here at PNC Arena and he knew that I wanted to get into hockey.
So he said, "Why don't we just reach out to the Canes organization and see if someone would be willing to speak with you and give you some insight on steps to take just to get your foot into the hockey world?" And so of course I was like, "Yeah, if someone's willing to do that I would love it."
Don Waddell volunteered to do it.
He gave me a tour of the arena, then we sat in the stands on our own after practice. He just kind of talked to me about like, my goals and dreams in the broadcast industry and then gave me some insight on hey, you know, here's the type of people you could talk to to break in, here's what you can do to build a reel, different things that we look for when we're hiring and stuff.
Fast-forward six years and now here we are. It's all very surreal.
I wasn't trying to get any specific job at the time, there wasn't an opening, but I just wanted to pick as many brains as I could and see if someone was willing to talk to me. He was super friendly and helped me a lot.
What are you most looking forward to about this new adventure? - @T\_Mann30
I'm super excited and I'm just happy to be here. Everyone's been super welcoming. I'm thrilled to join this group plus the team.
They're going to make a competitive run towards the Stanley Cup. So it's just a great year to be here overall.
Outside of that, I'm looking forward to personal growth and professional growth. Having new teammates and covering a team that's had so much success in recent years, and that's going to be successful again this year.
There's a lot of new faces even on the ice. So it's been helpful coming in with so many others.