The view from the Waters’ edge
Hello citizens of Clarendon County!
My name is Chuck Waters and I am a new member to this community and the new reporter for the Clarendon Citizen.
I am a single, 27-year-old college graduate in his third job. I am a native South Carolinian as I was born in Newberry in 1982.
Since finishing college in 2006, I have been trying to obtain a job back in my native state.
I got my first job in Greenville, Mississippi, as a sports reporter. There, I was responsible only for sports. The job was really good; I met some cool people, and I got to see firsthand how a daily newspaper operated.
The only downside to that job is that is was 650 miles and 11 hours away from home. I am an extremely family-oriented person and I really disliked being that far away.
Nevertheless, I needed any experience I could get in order to start my career. So I started in September of 2006 and took off. I worked there for 16 months before being laid off in January of 2008. You remember what happened to the economy don’t you?
I’ll be honest, when I was told of that, in one way I was disappointed but on the other, I was so happy because I knew that meant I now had a chance to obtain a job back closer to home.
That is when I got my job in Elberton, Georgia. I was hired in March 2008 and just finished my stint there in July.
There, I was mainly responsible for keeping the sports section at the top, but I did a little bit of everything. I went out and took pictures of ribbon cutting ceremonies, covered the Board of Education and many other various newspaper outings. The newspaper there was a weekly printed on Wednesdays so the pressure of a daily decreased rapidly.
There were other things I discovered that were important in a small community like Elberton.
I learned that establishing relationships was the number one key in this profession. There, with so many fewer people to meet and places to go, I was able to get very close with many people. The high school principal, the hospital CEO, teachers, coaches and other community leaders and I became close. It didn’t take long before we were working together to make Elberton a better place.
Despite all the great people I met in Elberton, I felt it was my time to move on earlier this summer. I looked for open positions in my beloved South Carolina and I found this opportunity in Manning. I scheduled an interview and accepted an offer several days later and began my career serving the Clarendon County community on July 26. I look forward to meeting many more new friends and establishing great relationships with them as well.
A few items from the About Chuck file:
As a South Carolina native I love that I am back in my home state.
I am a huge sports fan, namely a huge Clemson Tigers fan. I am glad to see the other stickers, flags and license tags for those of you that have them.
As I said earlier, I love my family and I look forward to having my own someday.
I am also an animal lover and I have a cat. I have a female tabby that is living with my parents in Simpsonville. I also love dogs but don’t have the ability or room to fairly keep one right now.
I have several hobbies such as shooting pool, bowling, sporting events, watching movies and spending time outdoors. My favorite television shows are King of Queens, Becker, The Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld and America’s Funniest Videos.
I hope you will think I am a cool guy to know and I do look forward to meeting you and getting to know you. Thank you all for letting me introduce myself and I hope my time in Clarendon County is successful and rewarding. I look forward with much anticipation to getting out there and learning all about you.
