A Calling

"Journalists work for themselves, but also for an audience. What we sell is something good and precious, the most incisive and artful rendering of human events that we can produce. If you don't feel that way, then you might as well surrender and apply to law school."

- Letters to a Young Journalist, Samuel Freedman

I laughed out loud (and also cried and cheered) when reading this book because it was like the author was reading my mind. It's been like the journalism mentor I never had; it has confirmed all of my passions and has dispelled all of my doubts. It knew all of my fears, but the deepest desires in me to tell the stories of others. Just the right amount of idealism, tempered with practical advice. It believed in me!

The author also teaches at Columbia J-School, which I just submitted my application to. And now the waiting begins.

I always thought idealism was one of my deepest faults - people telling me that I need to be rational, realistic, get a stable job. And I've tried to follow their advice, but only have been left feeling deeply unsatisfied. And it's not like I don't know that it'll be a hard job, with lots of disappointments.

Samuel Freedman describes journalism as a calling. He even goes further to say that it is a "moral calling" and that "anyone who doesn't enter journalism believing it is a moral enterprise might as well move straight on to speculating in foreign currency or manufacturing Agent Orange."

Maybe a little presumptuous, I know. But we are journalists. And I couldn't be happier to have made this decision.

!!!!!!!