Why I do it

I have been asked quite a few times over the past few months, "Why do you do it?" Usually they were referring to why I bust my butt in the world of journalism. And most of the time I told them because I have too. I had to finish school so I could get just one job and breathe again. It had been a really long time since I had taken a breath.

But with diploma in hand I can now say, I do it because I love it. Truly love it more than anything else in the world. The feeling I get from writing is overwhelming. The way I watch words flow from my hand is like magic. 

Most people see journalist and they think we are narcissistic, really only in it to get our pretty faces on TV. Well, obviously my pretty face looks great on TV... kidding! I actually look like a five year old in front of a camera. But that isn't it. 

Others think we do it to be pest. Clearly journalist were also the gossip kings and queens of their grade school. But that isn't it at all. See, gossip is all about making up rumors, we are all about finding the facts.

The thing no one ever does is ask us why. Why do you do what you do? 

Well, I'm here to tell you why I do what I do. 

I'm a journalist because being a journalist is what I know. Everything from finding a story to writing the script is in my blood. We hope with our words we can effect just one person, that someone can be changed by the things we produce. There are life lessons wrapped up in every inch of this job. We see the world through different eyes. To us a wreck is a story, it is finding out why that exact car was in the exact place at the exact second. Why the world works the way it does. 

Like one time when we were dealing with a teen death. It was obvious by the witnesses there was more to this that a simple hit and run. My mind was reeling, how sad it was, how educational it could be. To me this boy was not just an unnamed victim. He was my world. I had to protect him, and I had to give him justice. Of course, going to the prayer circle of high school students made me look like a harasser. But in my mind all I wanted to be was this boys guardian. 

There is an extent that journalist have to cut them selves off from a story. To most it seems we are heartless, but to the secluded world of writers we know it is just the opposite. The reason we do what we do is because we are so emotionally attached. I would stay up for days hunting down a missing person, or to get to the bottom of a conspiracy that may help even just two people keep a job. It is because we care with every piece of ourself that we do these things. 

And then there are the personal reasons for being a journalist, I personally have three:

1) To have an interview like Sweet Brown. I'm not sure if you have seen her... she is the one that said "Oh lord Jesus it's a fire!" Let me just say, this would be not only the biggest test of my ability, but also the best thing ever. Having to keep a straight face while you know you are in the process of making someone a YouTube sensation would be magnificent. 

2) I really want to go to jail for a source. What an honorable thing to know you have enough integrity to suffer just to keep a source unknown. This doesn't happen often now that we can't use unknown sources, but you just never know. 

3) And of course, I want to be a POW. Let's be honest, the stories you could tell after being tortured. And how great to know you are fighting for your country in a way most don't. I'm too scared to be a soldier, but I never said I wouldn't keep my mouth shut while someone was plopping water on my forehead. 

Oh... and wanting to drive the FOX car. Clearly my number one reason. Everything is better in the FOX car.