Sunday, October 25, 2009

after a month

Last Thursday marked my first-month anniversary at work. Within those 30(ish) days, I've already come to learn several things:

*It is not okay to try and break the rules of journalism when you're just starting. Yes, you still need a hard news nut graf, and you still need to introduce a direct quote by the third or fourth graf. In general, the most basic rules of news writing still apply. Period.

*Every day is a roller coaster. Some days I'm riding high, others I'm well below the levels of the subterranean transit systems in Madrid and Chicago.

*I will be forever broke. It's bad enough when you are living paycheck to paycheck, but it's even worse when you are already spending the money for hours you haven't even worked yet.

*I should have gone into magazines. I'm not a hard-news person, I love writing long and colorful stories, and I can't write quickly.

That said, I am still basically liking my job a lot. Maybe not loving it just yet, but I'm hoping to stick it out for a bit and ride it out. Worst-case scenario: I get fired. While that would suck, life would go on.

Enjoy my latest story here