Sunday, December 28, 2008

What can I do?

As somebody who asks way too many questions of random strangers anyway, I decided to go for a degree that would allow me to ask lots of questions once I finally get out into the big bad working world.  The natural choice, for me anyway, was journalism.  

Of course after having made this decision, I have felt the need to one up myself by becoming the best journalist that I can be and, hopefully, one of the best journalists of my time.  The problem with this of course being that I have no idea how to be a good journalist, much less a great journalist, so I turned to Google to answer a few of my questions about journalism.  As always, the variety of results was pleasing varied and there is no shortage of ideas on what to do in order to become a great journalist.  Unfortunately, I don't think that it is physically possible to do everything that was suggested.  

It really comes down to: What can I do with the time and resources that I have?

I guess that question applies to a lot of things though: Family, friends, vacations, school, a place to live, transportation, etc.  I'll admit that the time is more of a concern then the resources part for me in this.  I am presently reading a book on early American journalism and millions of news sources are at my finger tips thanks to the internet.  At the moment, my greatest struggle seems to be finding the time between work and classes (which I will be returning to again, all too soon) to actually read enough of this material to count for anything or, better yet, to actually send out more then the occasional article on this or that to local papers.  

Not having enough time is a lame excuse though, I'll admit.  We all have the same 24 hours in a day, so I guess I'll just have to make better use of the time I have.  For me I guess that means less tv and surfing on the net and more reading and writing.  

It's time to do this.  No more procrastination.  I am taking the leap.  I will be a great journalist.

(The clip may seem a little melodramatic, but that is how I feel when I'm getting ready to talk to an editor for the first time.  It is seems epic when I find solid ground.)

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