I want to tell you how I know that I am called to be an independent journalist. 

I know, no one really talks about journalism being a calling, but here’s my story…

So it started when I was a wee little babe. Well, not wee, I think I was in middle school. 

Now, I come from a family of educators, so in my mind I was like, “I’m going to go to X university; get a PhD; and be an English college professor for the rest of my life.”

Because I loved reading, and I come from a family of educators. So that was my plan. 

Growing up, I didn’t really look up to, or emulate, or worship journalists in any way. I had a certain level of respect for them, but I wasn’t like, “Oh my god, that’s what I want to be when I grow up.” 

Then one fateful summer, I spent a few weeks visiting an aunt of mine who lived in another state. She was my favorite aunt, because she was a boss babe, par excellence. 

I looked up to her like, “You’re amazing!” So the words that came out of her mouth were gold to me. 

One day, we were hanging out in the house, and there was a journalist on the television, a very well-known one. Out of nowhere, completely out of nowhere, my aunt turned to me and said, “You could be the next <journalist’s name>.” 

And I remember thinking to myself, “I mean, I don’t want to be a journalist.” 

But the weird thing is, it planted a seed in my head. And ever since that happened, my thinking of, “Okay, I’m going to go and get a PhD and become a college professor,” that went out the window. Suddenly the seed was planted where I was like, “I need to major in journalism.” 

Which is exactly what I did. 

So my undergraduate degree is in journalism. My graduate degree is in writing. So I am a writer, a journalist, a documentary filmmaker, and a storyteller. 

Funny thing is, when I graduated from my journalism degree program, I couldn’t get a job in journalism, which was crazy. Well, not crazy because, that was during a downturn in the economy. 

But in my mind, I was like, “Okay, if I’m supposed to be a journalist, why am I blocked from being a journalist? Like, I don’t understand it.” 

Hindsight being 20/20, what I understand now is it was not the time to do it. 

So I ended up falling into the tech industry. Which I didn’t mind because it pays really well. For years, I was just trucking along, doing tech, using my journalism skills to create amazing websites and digital experiences and marketing campaigns. While also teaching courses and doing freelance journalism projects on the side.

Then out of nowhere, the Universe, God, Serendipity was like, “Yeah, so now I need you to go do journalism independently.”

And I was like, “You mean the industry where people are constantly getting laid off? You want me to go into journalism full-time? You must be crazy.”

I had no desire to do it, whatsoever. 

But sometimes in life, things happen where your life becomes a tunnel; and you have no choice but to go in one direction. That’s it. 

And that one direction was leading me to becoming an independent journalist who meets people Serendipitously to capture their stories. Which is why I call myself the Serendipitous Love & Travel Journalist. 

It’s when I’m out and about exploring a destination, or working on a story, and I meet someone. We have a conversation, and they say something that inspires me to ask, “You know what… you mind if I interview you?” 

Next thing you know, I have a full on podcast episode about a topic that is fascinating. 

Which is why the name of my podcast is Fascinating with Sasha Tobago. 

I named it Fascinating, because every… single… episode is fascinating!