As a journalist, I have the opportunity of presenting my stories to hundreds of people, as they read the morning newspaper and have their coffee. As a small-town columnist in my hometown, I have fans, fans who are actually interested in what I have to say for the day, and who come to me for advice—and God knows—I love to give advice. I have the chance to make somebody’s day or to just make them laugh, and maybe change their view on a particular subject of interest. And by the way, here’s something interesting to think about the next time you run to the refrigerator: Why is it that you keep returning to the same refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized? Don’t deny it; we all do it. But why is that…really? Anyways, back to the prompt—my dad once told me about a quote he read somewhere: “Find something that you like so much that you’d do it for free, and then get so good at it, that they’ll pay you to do it.” And needless to say, I find the idea of being a good influence on people, even people whom I’ve never even met, to be very intriguing and an exceptional opportunity. Their question, to me, was: Why do I want to be a journalist? My question to the rest of the world is: Why would I want to be anything else?
As a journalist, I have that found the opportunity that my dad talked about—the opportunity to do something—something, which I love so much, I’d really do it for free. And with a little experience, I’ve grown to be good enough at it that they pay me to do it…it doesn’t get any better than that. And I’ll leave you with this......................