David Muir is one of the most familiar faces on the TV, delivering the news headlines on World News Tonight on ABC each evening.
The notoriously private journalist is living his dream, having had high aspirations to follow this career path from a very young age. What's more, David knew he was always different from the rest of his friends growing up.
In a recent interview with People, the 20/20 anchor explained that during his childhood, he would always run home to watch the news, something none of his other friends did.
© Getty ImagesHe said: "I was a nerd who felt this gravitational pull to the news, starting back when I was 12 years old. I remember being outside, playing with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood and being the only kid who would go inside when the local news came on, and then watching Peter Jennings, who I thought was sort of the James Bond of the evening news, the globetrotter."
He continued to explain that Peter resembled an "opportunity to get out there beyond your backyard and see the world."
© ABC via Getty Images"There was always this incredible pull," he said. David was incredibly ambitious too, and started writing letters to local reporters asking to intern with them.
"I began interning, carrying all the equipment — and back then the equipment was huge and heavy — and I'd jump into the back of the cruiser and I was honestly the happiest kid," he said. Most kids were looking forward to summer vacation and I couldn't wait to get into the back seat of that cruiser all over again.
© Getty Images"All these years later, I look back on that as a defining moment in my life. I dove headfirst and I was just lucky enough to have people around me who weren't turned off by the kid intern."
David's parents were also incredibly supportive of his career ambitions. He grew up in Syracuse, New York, to his father Ronald Muir, and mother, Pat, who divorced when he was young, but continued to co-parent amicably.
Chatting to Syracuse.com about his upbringing, the journalist said that he remembered his mother and father driving him to the television studios where he was interning.
© Instagram"One of the images I won’t forget is my mother and my father driving me there on summer vacation or school breaks," he said.
"When most kids go off to do other things, I remember just begging them to take me to that TV station. I'm sure they dreaded it. Between the two of them, they had to get me there. To this day, I'm grateful they would drive me to 980 James St."
