It’s easy to overlook the hard part of a job when you’re having fantasies about the future.
I thought that being a news journalist would be the most exciting career ever, but all it left me with was a case of post-traumatic disorder and a desire to stay as far away from print media as humanly possible.
In my years of desiring the reporter status, I never stopped to consider how I would feel on the days that would test my resolve. You get a lot of murders, horrifying accidents, and down despicable acts that have to be reported on each and every day, regardless of how you feel inside. I reached a near breaking point when I was asked to go interrogate the family of a high school athlete on the day after Christmas—he had just died in a tragic accident the day prior, and I was writing his feature story for the local newspaper. After nearly being chased away in my car, I realized that I wasn’t cut out for this kind of work. It tests my moral resolve too much, so I took my job experience and started working for a concert promoter instead. My friend Ruth was a criminal attorney for the state for years before she couldn’t take it any longer. Like me, Ruth has strong ethics and is seriously bothered by injustice and emotional pain. Since all people—even proven criminals—have a right to fair legal representation, she had to fulfill that role more times than she could possibly handle. After a few years of crying herself to sleep working as a criminal attorney, she switched to family and estate law. She makes more money as a family attorney and feels like she’s doing something good with her time everyday.