They’re Called Dreams For a Reason

By JOHN McKENNA

“A franchise changing guy regardless, and the type of guy that they have not drafted organically in even longer. Kravtsov just moved back to be the team’s second best prospect, and that wasn’t likely until the team won the lottery. Kakko, at 18, is 12 years away from 30, his prime is years away, this time in the right direction.”

Those sentences comprise 59 of the 1,426 words Joe Fortunato wrote about the New York Rangers’ opportunity to draft Finnish forward Kaapo Kakko with the 2nd overall selection of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, their highest selection in 53 years. As the managing editor of Blueshirt Banter, SB Nation’s Rangers blog, Fortunato hosts a podcast that averages 10,000 downloads per episode, oversees a site that generates over 10 million page views per year, ranks in the top three in overall viewership, and annually leads all 34 SB Nation hockey blogs in comments.

All of that comes from a man who only moonlights as a sports writer, with his dream of making a living covering the Rangers long fallen by the wayside.  “I am at peace that I changed, mainly because I went for it and realized that it wasn’t going to work,” he says. “That said, having the Banter helps scratch the itch for me.”

The #NYR president job, why JD could both be a great hire and still fulfill the ‘old boys club’ mentality, Yzerman returning to Detroit, how Kakko can change the Ranger, draft pick updates, & more from @JoeFortunatoBSB & @DigDeepBSB on this week’s podcasthttps://t.co/vfet9hP3hC

— Blueshirt Banter (@BlueshirtBanter) April 23, 2019

Fortunato is among the 78 percent of Americans (as well as 88 percent within the 18-34 age bracket) who feel they haven’t achieved their dream job, according to SurveyMonkey.  Although he initially pursued his dream of working on the New York Rangers’ beat, Fortunato transitioned out of the sports journalism industry in 2012. Since then, he’s managed to carve out a career for himself at CoxReps, selling commercial airspace for broadcast television.

Although it wasn’t Fortunato’s plan throughout college, a career in the television advertising industry has offered him the family time and consistent hours that a position on the Rangers’ beat never could. “Priorities change as you get older. My goals at 23 years old were drastically different than they are now,” says Fortunato. Once his priorities changed and Fortunato realized he needed to parachute out of the journalism industry, a stroke of luck helped him land on his feet.

For someone who’s climbed the ranks of CoxReps up to the title of Account Executive, Fortunato started with zero knowledge of current career field. “I didn’t even know the field existed until someone I knew heard I was trying to get out of the journalism industry and recommended me for an assistant position.”

Without the base knowledge that other entry level applicants in the advertising industry possess, Fortunato had to make his own success. Hard work, consistent effort, and moxie more than made up the industry knowledge Fortunato lacked compared to his then-peers, and has led him to where he is today. In spite of that, it wasn’t always where he wanted to be.

On his way to earning a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Quinnipiac in 2010, Fortunato, now a 30-year-old man, was aware of the shifting landscape of journalism. However, he didn’t experience the depths of it until he took a position at the New Britain Herald in Connecticut, covering the AHL’s Connecticut Whale and AA baseball’s New Britain Rock Cats.

“I’m not sure I was prepared for how quickly the print drop off happened, but I figured it out…We were doing all our own writing, editing, photos, and the paper itself. It was crazy,” says Fortunato of his time at the Herald. His stint there was brief, as Fortunato realized that for the time he would need to commit and paltry income it would likely bring in, a career in sports journalism wasn’t something he was willing to pursue.

He cites one particular encounter as his moment of realization that moving on from his dream was the right call. “I met a man who was in his early 50’s and had been working in the industry for about 35 years. He was still making very little money and hadn’t found an ability to move up in the space. And as someone who was looking to start a family and needed to frankly make more money, I realized that I could easily be that man, in too deep and so much later in life I had nowhere else to go.”

When One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

Fortunato left the Herald after less than 18 months, and began his career at CoxReps in 2012. Since moving on from the Herald, Fortunato is satisfied with his current life. With a wife, an infant daughter, and a stable career at CoxReps, Fortunato feels his responsibilities at Blueshirt Banter serve as the perfect complement to his primary job, giving him a venue to express his fandom unlike any other.

In spite of not achieving his dream job, Fortunato has managed to carve out a successful life for himself and his family. The same can be said for Steven Belfi, who yearned for a job in law enforcement throughout his high school and early college years, and had taken steps towards realizing that dream. Fortunato and Belfi are among the estimated 61% of Americans that have no regrets on not pursuing their dream job according to TollFreeForwarding, a virtual phone-based platform that conducted the survey via calls. Belfi’s path featured many of the same twists and turns Fortunato’s did, but Belfi’s final decision involved a different rationale than Fortunato’s.

Having already graduated the Ramapo (NY) Police Department Youth Academy, taken placement tests to earn admission into John Jay College’s Police Studies program, as well as earned an Associates of Science  in Criminal Justice from Rockland Community College, the foundation for a career in law enforcement had already been laid by the summer of 2012. All Belfi had to do was wait. And wait he did.

And wait.

And wait.

And all that waiting gave him time to examine the full scope of what the day-to-day life as a police officer would look like for him and his partner.

“I started second thinking a career in law enforcement when I started learning more about the demanding work hours that were atypical and non-predictable, not to mention the heightened scrutiny around law enforcement officers in today’s political climate,” says Belfi, age 27. He started to explore other career paths that piqued his interest, and saw Ramapo College as the best opportunity to begin the trek down those paths.

After graduating with a bachelor’s in Business Administration: Marketing in 2014, Belfi began working as a commercial sales account executive for Cablevision. Envisioning his potential in the marketing field, Belfi was all but ready to commit to his new career after only three months on the job.

“My whole decision to go to Ramapo was largely based on how long it was taking to get a call from the police department for an interview because they hadn’t hired anyone in years,” he says.

Time passed Belfi by, and with time comes change. With his passion for policing all but gone, that call he had once dreamed about finally came. But the starry-eyed, 20 year old kid who had put his first six years of secondary and tertiary education into a career in law enforcement was long gone. In his place stood a nearly 24-year-old man with visions of a safe, stable career nestled within the lofty skyscrapers of New York City.

“About three months into the job, I got a call from the chief of police offering me the job after almost four years, but I turned it down because I already got a taste of what my life was like in my new career, and knew it was the right fit for me.”

Belfi thought about jumping at the chance of living out his childhood dream, but his mind had been more or less made up three months prior. “I easily could have said yes and took the job, worked my 20-25 years and retired young. But I knew I’d be selling myself short…I already knew I had great potential to grow in this field.” 

Since cementing his career path in the marketing industry, Belfi has moved on to Zenith Media, where he’s worked his way up from an entry level position to the Supervisor of Holistic Strategy and Investment, where he works with Visible, Verizon’s phone service without the typical downsides of being locked into a contract, such as visiting a set store or dealing with additional fees.  The story of his successful life is still being written, and his reality was good enough to make him pass up on the dream he once had.

Life Gets In The Way

Belfi and Fortunato represent optimistic scenarios. Both men had avenues to pursue their dream without any roadblocks standing in the way, and both opted to go down a different road on their own terms. Not everyone is fortunate enough to pursue an education as long as they plan, and one of those unfortunate ones is Geriyn Savino.

With an eye on a career in publishing, Savino, age 23, had a roadmap she planned to follow enroute to a bachelor’s degree and a foot in the door of the publishing world. A family connection all but assured her a position at Pearson Education pending her completion of college. “At that point in time the starting position I would have had would have been an entry level proofreader, eventually working my way through the company to the highest position I could obtain,” says Savino of her plan.

No plan survives contact with the enemy, and in her case, the enemy was life. Wanting to avoid the crippling debt that comes with student loans, and aid via FAFSA not being an option, Savino juggled multiple jobs throughout her time at Rockland Community College. Ranging from managing the customer service desk at a Mahwah grocery store, to working the phones at a pizzeria in Suffern and proctoring SAT’s at the local high school, Savino realized that the school/work balance she was trying to maintain was anything but.

The full-time student course load she managed at school and the 50+ hour work weeks she put in were enough to keep anybody occupied on their own. Juggling both of them wasn’t possible for very long, and Savino realized she had to make a decision. “It was too much. I stayed working those jobs for two years after I stopped my second semester, with every intention to go back.”

Savino isn’t alone, as she’s among the 54% of former students that cited an inability to balance a full-time course load with jobs away from class, according to Public Agenda, a nonprofit public engagement and research organization. Her worries about her past decision are twofold, as the slow, unavoidable death of traditional publishing companies will eliminate any chance for her to return to school, finish her degree, and continue along the roadmap she set so long ago. In addition to that, general anxiety about lagging behind her peers whether or not she ever goes back also plays a role.

“I regret it because yes, eventually most publishing companies won’t be around. My aunt’s original company was based in Mahwah. They downsized tremendously a few years ago and that office isn’t even there anymore…If and when I do decide to go back I will inevitably be one of the oldest people in the classes.”

Even after putting her education on the backburner to obtain a more healthy life balance, Savino didn’t experience the outcome she had expected. Less time in the classroom meant more time on the clock, and 12 hour work days became a regular occurrence in her life.

After getting to bed in the wee hours of the morning, Savino would wake up just in time to prepare for her 11:00 A.M. shift at IL Villaggio’s Pizza. Three hours of handling orders at the counter, working the phone for incoming calls, and training any incoming storefront employees served as the appetizer of Savino’s average day. After a short pit stop at home, Savino would make her way over to ACME and settle in for the 3:30-11:00 P.M. shift she worked five days per week. Getting out on time was the type of rarity that makes a Halley’s Comet sighting look like a daily event, so aside from the occasional foray into the local nightlife, it was back to bed for Savino, only to start the cycle again the next morning.

Savino’s life schedule has meant she’s missed out on experiences most young women her age don’t even think twice about. There were never any trips to the mall with her girlfriends. Never any road trips to go see a site or a concert. Not even a college visit to any friends away for the school year. The window of opportunity for Savino to experience those fun times has seemingly closed, but it isn’t even the biggest tragedy of her formative years. Much digital ink has been spilled America’s issues with their college dropout rate. All the digital ink in the world doesn’t make up for the physical ink that circumstances have prevented Savino living out her dream of overseeing.

Reconciling Reverie With Reality

The tales of Joe Fortunato, Steven Belfi, and Geriyn Savino might have different beginnings, middles, and endings, but they all share a common theme. Each of them had a dream, and each of them gave maximum effort towards realizing those dreams for as long as they could manage.

Fortunato encountered a dead end down one path, but was able to turn around, shift gears, and arrive at another desirable destination. Belfi was driving down the path of a career in law enforcement on his way to a happy life, but needed to take a detour to arrive at the same ending point. The road through Savino’s life story is still under construction, and with the freedom to choose between working full time or returning to her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, it’ll take some time to finish.

This trio of young adults all loaded up their shots, took aim at the moon, and fired away. None of them may have hit the moon, but they did land among the stars.

“What I would caution is ‘going for the dream’ and getting in so deep you can’t get out…make sure you’re not aiming for the stars and coming away with nothing,” says Fortunato.