Chris Berman, the big dawg, the king of ESPN was finally in the office on Monday. He hadn’t been there for 6 weeks. I walked by his door every day just to make sure…

I had full intentions of actually meeting Stuart Scott that day, but his door was closed and I chickened out and wouldn’t knock.

Berman’s door on the other hand…was not.

Outside of his office door is a “Take a Number” kiosk as a joke…because he is a very busy man. I thought, here’s my chance! I took a deep breath and peeked inside his opened door. Nothing. He wasn’t there. But everything he could ever possibly own was in there. Tons of Bills memorabilia, tons of pictures with players, etc. Tons of everything. But no Chris.

I went back to my desk to tell Brian, my supervisor. He told me to go back again at 5:30pm b/c he was probably in a meeting. So I did.

I walked by the door and it was slightly closed but I could hear him talking on the phone. I was standing outside of his door, waiting for him to finish so I could walk in, when I saw Brittany. I ran to Brittany!

She asked me if I wanted to meet Keyshawn Johnson, an anchor and former football player, and I said sure! So I walked to the Make-Up Room with her where she gave him his suit. Apparently she was helping him ALL day! She had to go and get a steamer for him, it didn’t work, and we watched as he ironed his blazer while it hung from a hanger. Silly. In came Mark Schlereth. I’ve seen him a few times before. His beauty is amazing…definitely understand why he’s Roc Hoover!

They both got up to leave and “kill time” before they went on air. I asked Keyshawn to introduce me to Berman. He didn’t know him…So I walked by Berman’s office again but this time Mark and another guy were standing there talking to him. I thought, here’s my chance!

I walked over to the door and stood outside, waiting for Mark to notice me and do the awkward “uhhh there’s a girl standing out here” move to the side. So he moved over and I pushed through and said “Hi, I’m Ashley and I’ve really wanted to meet you!”

Berman’s desk was so packed that I literally could not see him over a pile of tapes. I wasn’t sure if I was talking to him or not!

He got up shook my hand. Just then the two guys left and I was there talking to Berman for 20 minutes before he got ready to go on air at 6:30pm!!

We talked Bills, UNC, the stuff I do at UNC, how he got where he was, and advice for me if I wanted to pursue on-air. He suggested I find an area I could “settle” in and apply to jobs within a 100 mile radius. I then just go-go-go.

He said b/c I had the guts to walk into his office and start talking, means “I got something.” That meant a lot to me. I told him how I did the interviewing on the Red Carpet and he congratulated me for taking on such a task.

His biggest piece of advice that he was told while starting out as an anchor was, “Be pushy, but not a pain in the ass.” And only I know when I’m being a pain the ass.

Meeting him made this whole internship worth it! He was so nice and wanted to genuinely talk to me and learn about what I do. He wanted to give me advice and told me I could definitely do on-air if I work hard. I’ll take what he said to heart. I want to work hard just so he can see me in the future doing exactly what I want to do. I want to tell Entertainment Tonight what he told me and how it inspired me.

I left that day excited to return to school, to begin what I’ve always wanted to do.