By Sarah Lemos

Darryl Forges fell in love with the news. As early as fifth grade, when he had the privilege of “telling kids what they were having for lunch,” Forges found a passion in “telling people what they didn’t know.”

That passion, he says, drove him. He “did everything,” from print to radio to broadcasting. In high school and in college he covered news, politics, sports and entertainment. So he was positive that life after college would fall into place.

“I knew that right after graduation, the next day at nine a.m., I’d have a job. I knew it,” he said.

But, that is not what happened.

Forges applied to stations everywhere across the country. No one hired him.

“It was tough. It was a low point,” he said. He remained persistent and optimistic. He kept applying, interviewing, following up and finally, six months later, he got the call he’s waited for.

His first job in Alabama was tough. He was a “one man operation.” He had to do it all: video, sound, writing, reporting and editing.

His very first day on the job was emotionally taxing. A father had killed his five children. The bodies were found. When Forges got there, he saw what looked like “five children sleeping.” There was a blanket over them and all he could see was the top of their heads. “I thought they were sleeping.”

They weren’t.

Forges came back to work the next day. And the day after that and, within months, he started winning prestigious awards. More opportunities came soon after.

He interviewed Oprah Winfrey and John Legend. He covered events where Presidents Obama and George W. Bush. He has reported on storms, crimes, murders and traffic. And it is the excitement of not knowing what each day will bring that keeps him looking forward to every day, even when it begins at 2:15 a.m.

Not every day is good.

Some stories, like the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas or the FIU bridge collapse, haunt him. He’s been attached, insulted, spit on, yelled at. Passerby’s have called him “fake news.”

He “just keeps moving,” and “keeps it professional.”

And that was Forges’s biggest message to The Harbinger staff.

“Repeat after me,” he said. “If it is meant to be, it’s up to me.”

Life is challenging. But, he stressed, “you have to pick yourself up and make something happen…. when the door of opportunity cracks open, I advise you to bust through it.”