My name is William Acri and I am the new reporter for the Estevan Mercury. Moving out west for work is something a lot of my friends in Acton, Ont., would say when they were about to take part in Canada鈥檚 natural resource industry.聽 For me moving out west meant finally getting a full-time job as a reporter.
I moved from Acton, Ont. a few days ago to live and work in Estevan. Acton is a small town in southern Ontario. Similar to Estevan, Acton was also an industry-based community. The recession that started in 1987 brought an end to the last of the industrial employers in my town. 聽Acton is now a bedroom community because most of the people who live there work in Toronto.聽聽
I graduated from Loyalist College in 2016 with a diploma in photojournalism. After graduation, myself and many other students quickly found out that the market for journalists in Ontario is oversaturated. I personally always liked community reporting and since I do not have a passion for living in big cities, I was very excited when I received a call to work at the Estevan Mercury.聽聽
My trip from Acton to Estevan was intended to be a carefully planned and uneventful trip.聽 I arrived in Wawa, Ont. on the night of Oct. 25.聽 I went to sleep that night not knowing I was on the edge of the first snowstorm of the year. I did arrive safely in Estevan but the trip ended up 小蓝视频 a lot more interesting than I had anticipated.
Ever since I was young I had a passion for photography. I got my first camera when I was 10 and it was a No. 2A Brownie Box camera that used 120 film. A few years later I had upgraded to a Pentax Spotmatic with interchangeable lenses. That camera allowed me to start learning how to take professional photos.聽 The more photos I took, the more I realized what I was doing with my photos was storytelling. Because of this I began to seriously think about a career in journalism and I am very happy to finally achieve a dream that I was never really sure was even possible.
