Meet the new business reporter: Making, serving, hopping and reporting

About two months before my 16th birthday, I found a job making sandwiches.

There was nothing school could have taught me that I learned from a handful of teenage boys, adults who had lived a rough life and being one of the few who had an idea of what I wanted to do with my life. Not a specific idea -- I just knew I was going to college.

Before I started school at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., I picked up a job at the restaurant my father has managed since it opened in 1995. Until about a year ago, most of my family and I worked under the same roof.

While attending school, I worked as a hostess, server and bartender for about five years.

I met people of all different walks of life, learned how unfair and absolutely lovely life can be. I loved my job because I loved being social with our customers and learning their stories.

When I left Truman and came home to attend Southeast Missouri State University, I picked the journalism major on a whim. I had hopped majors a couple times, was previously an English major who liked to read and write, not tear a piece of literature apart, and I just wanted to graduate.

To my surprise, I found a career I could see myself doing for the rest of my life.

I graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor's degree in mass communication with a journalism focus and a minor in creative writing. I was a staff writer and copy editor for Southeast's news publication, the Arrow. I covered arts and entertainment while I witnessed the Arrow grow from a ridiculed paper to a respected publication.

I was hired as a copy editor at the Southeast Missourian while I finished my degree. Now, I am the new face of the business beat. After living in Cape Girardeau since I was 5 years old, I look forward to meeting more wonderful people from the area and learning new things about my hometown.

Check out the biz blog at semissourian.com/blogs/amitydowning.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632