Nicole King: With a little help from my friends

It was an honour to have the Euro Weekly interview me for last week’s edition; thank you Michel and obviously Sally for your interpretation of me.  With the exception of the title including the word “celebrity” (which made me quite uncomfortable), I felt quite humbled and chuffed.  

Ironically as a child, I dreamt of being a famous actress. I loved drama.  My parents even referred to me as “Sarah Bernhard”, the silent movie actress, for my exaggerated expression of my feelings, “way too dramatic” apparently. As an adult, it’s served me well, as has being a chatterbox or suffering from “verbal diarrhea” as my father used to say.

My introduction to journalism was quite perchance; I was helping Maurice Boland fill in for one day on the breakfast show on Italk FM when the regular hosts suddenly dropped out.  I just happened to be there visiting.  He was either impressed by my efforts or desperate as he then offered me the chance to host the show daily, together with THE Sid Olivera.   That was back in 2012.    I never anticipated that I would learn so much and not just about how to be a presenter, control the sound deck and computers whilst talking on air live and doing interviews but about the responsibility that comes with “the job”.

My first wake-up call was when Maurice asked me to do an interview with Minerva about the Butterfly Children Charity; I was horrified by the condition and certainly didn’t want to talk about it; but he insisted: it was my responsibility to do so.

I then realised how uncomfortable I felt at events, usually for 2 reasons: one that people from other media would refer to me as “the competition” and the other was finding friends come out of the woodwork just because I had a radio show and was, therefore, a “celebrity”. Neither made me feel good about what I was doing.

It was at this point that I fully embraced the position I was in and the platform that came with it. I saw an opportunity to help others share their messages and connect the people that could be most suited to their dreams and projects; and encourage the international resident community to really engage with the Town Hall to understand how they can help you and vice versa.  The expats that only come to live “in the sun” miss out on so much.

I couldn’t feel prouder to live here; for the efforts our town hall and RTV Marbella make to embrace the foreign communities and the privileged minds and kind hearts that we get to meet from so many countries makes this a city that is literally beaming with brilliance.

I’m still embracing the opportunity and so very, very thankful to have met and collaborated with such amazing people, through the radio, television and of course, my #MarbellaMoments here with you at Euro Weekly News. Thank you all for your love and support. #BetterTogether.

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