Is it worth it anymore?

Wow. This just kind of says it all, I guess. Just wow.

 

I hear you there. I feel for EVERYONE in the business, whether they be newbies like myself or season vets who have 20+ years at the same shop and suddenly find themselves twisting in the wind. But having recently graduated, all of my experience in print sports journalism and not being able to find anything but the odd stringing/freelancing job at the moment, that sucks, especially because it feels like there's no way with the small pool of jobs and the overload of talented and overqualified applicants that I'll ever land a full time job with benefits. And yet this is all I want to do. As much as it pains me to see the way things are headed, and as gloomy as it is right now, I still just can't imagine myself doing anything else and actually being happy.

 

Hey, guys, I'm serious when I say this. Get something in your lives other than the job. I can't be more adamant about this. You will destroy yourself if you wrap your entire identity into the occupation of being a daily newspaper (or Internet) sports writer. You will. I don't care how much you love it. Take up golf as a serious hobby. Take up running. Take up chess. Take up something you can take pride in other than banging out copy about State U vs. Eastern State U.

I love it, too. Trust me. I have a big thick book containing all the Pulitzer Prize feature winning stories that I have read multiple times. Some of the best times in my life were on the road with my friends on the beat. I devoured the top sports columnists for years. I still get excited when SI arrives every week.

I feel the pain.

I've been where you are.

But don't feel like you have to wrap your entire identity and happiness in this. Don't do it. You don't owe it that.

 

I'm asked all the time about how much "fun" it must be to do this job. "You get to sit in the press box and eat free food and watch the game and talk with the players and coaches. Awesome! I'd love to have that job!"

Then I ask those people what they do for a living. What they like about their job, what they don't like. I'll then go overboard on how great their job must be. They'll come back and tell me all the things they hate about it and how it's not as good as it sounds.

I close it by telling them I deal with the same kind of crap they do every day.

The difference: In most cases, I get paid way less, work crazier hours, work on tighter deadlines, face higher stress and am always on call if news breaks. Rarely get a vacation or time off.

That usually gets them backing off on how "great" this job.

The general response: "Oh, I didn't ever think about that. That sounds like a tough job."

Yet we're still treated like retarded sheep time and time again.

 

I miss the days of loving my job. I really do.
Now, this is just my job. I go to work, i do what's required of me, and that's all.
I know this isn't a permanent frame of mind and because of that, I'm hopeful for a better tomorrow where I love my job again.

 

I used to think so.

But now?

I don't know. When you know how little the people you work for actually care about what you're doing, it makes it tough to just soldier on sometimes. I know that's not unique to my place, but

::Sigh::

Maybe I'm just cranky because I'm in the middle of covering a prep basketball team making a state run and suddenly a juco softball preview snuck up on me and kicked me in the back of the head.

 

Drafting off what Waylon just said, don't put so many eggs in the basket of "loving" your job again. It's OK -- really, it is -- if your job's just a job, because even in the best of times, your job is not going to love you back. That's what your family and friends are for. That's what your hobbies are for. That's what your passions, outside of work, are for. If you don't have any, find some.

In times of turmoil (such as the present), the best way to stay sane is to emotionally detach yourself from the stress. I see too many people in this business, including on this thread, who can't emotionally detach themselves from their jobs. I echo Waylon's sentiments: Find something else in your life, something you can turn to that has nothing to do with work. Whatever makes you happy.

You can't help what the business has become, and you can't help the heartache that we all feel. I feel it, too. But you CAN do something about this feeling that "loving your job" will make tomorrow better. I used to feel that way, too -- and, sure, there's a part of me that's sad that I no longer feel that way. But ... you have to get over it.

For your own sake, if no one else's.

 

I can't remember the last time I had this thought. It was *never* the job I signed up for. Sometimes that was a bad thing. Sometimes that was a good thing. But I always felt that the job, and journalism overall, was unpredictable to the point where you couldn't sign up for it because it couldn't be defined -- the hours, the workload, the stress, the deadlines.

 

As strange as it sounds, I agree with just about every post on here. The job sucks right now. But there are a hell of a lot worse things we could be doing. Whenever I get too aggravated, I just tell myself that I'm getting paid to work in sports, and that makes me feel better (most of the time). Now, if I was on a beat where I couldn't take a vacation/day off or was just starting out and making truly crappy money, I'd probably feel differently, but I still love it.

Having said that, with the threat of layoffs/furloughs/closings hanging over my head every day, if there was something else available I'd consider jumping. In that respect, it's NOT worth it. But I'd damn sure miss it.

As recently as two years ago I thought I had a pretty decent future in this business and was working my way up at a decent clip. I no longer see it that way, but I still have a passion for the work. I just had to start looking at it as a job and not a career. I hope to hang on to it as long as I can.

 

There are other jobs out there outside of journalism.

But you have to network your ass off to get them. I'm trying once again. I'll report back if I can even get in the door for an interview.

And, hell no, this isn't worth it.

 

There is some good advice here. I just had a daughter, my first, in August. And you'd think that, combined with the uncertainty of the business, would put be MORE on edge, not less.

But I come home from a crappy road trip, and walk through the door and a see my daughter smile up a me ... and I just get this feeling of peace. Like, they can take it all away from me, but as long as I can just have *this* ... everything will be OK.

In my darker moments, I have the same worries as everyone in my position ... how am I going to provide for her in two years, in five, in 10? How can I possibly hope to put her through college on a salary that shows no hope of increasing again?

But I see that smile, and those questions vanish. And I am at peace. And I realize there are more important things in life than a job.

 

Reminds me of something the advisor of the student government at my community college once said just after I finished being president of the student government: "It's not who you were, it what you did."

Don't let your work or your job define you. Only you can define you.