I spent some time today advising an undergraduate student who thinks he might like to become a journalist. Part of me wanted to talk him out of it, and part of me wanted to thank him for believing in the craft I've been practicing for the past 34 years.
Then I said something I've said to countless other students in my years of teaching: Dream big.
Life has a way of forcing us to rethink and reshape our dreams, but we should never let go of them. Lately, though, I've felt some of my own dreams slipping away: dreams of writing more, painting more, being more.
The busy-ness of life is one reason. Fear of failure is another. While I don't think I can make my life less busy just yet, I can try to let go of that fear.
Hey, I'm pushing 60. What have I got to lose?
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Honestly, I'm not sure what I'd tell aspiring journalists these days.
ReplyDeleteOne of the good things about the Internet is that it forces people to express themselves in the written word. The bad thing is that it leads a lot of people to think that they're GOOD at it ... which many of them are, but many are not.
Then there's the red-versus-blue divide and whether there's a place for "objective" journalism anymore when any yahoo can post something online that, say, chucks a hand grenade into a political campaign or ruins a person's reputation - without regard to whether or not it's true.
Problem is ... this is what I'm good at and what I've always done. My other marketable skills are few. Where to go next? Someday I'll need to find out, but for now I just keep hanging on.
Damn the torpedoes. Full steam ahead. Keep doing what you do best.
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