AIC is presenting a new podcast and it is hosted by yours truly, Saleem Messiah. As you can probably already assume, I am a communications major. I have been given the opportunity to start a podcast here at American International College and it’s called Necessary Conversations. Simply put, it covers conversations that are necessary, stemming from anything or anybody. College students, athletes, entertainers, etc. The podcast covers student’s lives, their goals, their problems, and whatever they feel. It gives listeners a chance to look at the other side of them that maybe people don’t see–or can’t see because they don’t have the platform to do so. The name popped in my head one day and just stuck.

I think it is important to highlight the journey of things like this so, allow me to run you through it. I first heard of a class called “TV Production” during my eighth-grade year of middle school, which is when you begin picking your electives for high school if you’re attending the district’s high school. I asked about the course. It seemed interesting enough, but I didn’t take it. After getting to my first year of high school and hearing about it so much, I made sure to select it for my sophomore year. On the first day of school of my sophomore year, my counselor came and found me after second period in the busy hallways of Union High School and told me I had to switch my schedule around for a science class. I had to drop my TV Production course. At the time, I didn’t care because I had no idea what it would mean to my life. But looking back, it’s kind of crazy. Everything happens for a reason though, right?

After hearing about it again so much during my sophomore year, I was determined to take this class. I must admit that at the time, I just thought it would be an easy A, and that was the reason I wanted to take the class. This class was an entry-level course so I was a junior taking it with freshmen and sophomores, and it was a half-year course; it ran from September to mid-February. I ended up being out of school through those first two to three months with an infection. When I came back, it was time to begin working on the final project, which was making a video of some sort. My group was all freshmen who were shy, and I’m decently shy myself. When it came to picking who was going on camera, everybody was looking around at each other, and something told me to say, “I’ll do it.”

I am a huge New Orleans Saints fan. Anyone who knows me can attest to that 1000%. The topic I chose to talk about–which probably only had to be for five to eight minutes, if that–was the Saints versus the Vikings 2018 playoff game. I was going to interview one of my best friends, Sean Simmons (a Vikings fan), about the outcome of that game win or loss. Unfortunately, everyone knows this playoff game as the “Minneapolis Miracle,” which ended with the Saints’ heartbreaking loss. If you’ve never seen it, you can watch it online. Only please, never bring it up around me; it still makes me emotional.

When I interviewed Sean, I must highlight that we were only doing what we do in the PlayStation 4 party all day: we argue about sports. So it was just having a conversation for me. I did the interview, and the teacher came out and said that was amazing. Everybody in the class said it was amazing too. It was the first time in my life I felt like this is what I need to do, and ever since that day, I knew what I wanted to do. This led to me hosting a fifteen-minute sports podcast during my senior year of high school.

You can catch the first two episodes of Necessary Conversations on YouTube.