"I'm leaving the business": How do people react?

I still love what I do, even if the future kind of scares me to death. As long as the first six words of that sentence are still true, I'm gonna hang in there.

 

A-freakin'-men. I've come to the conclusion that I've got to get out of this gig (if not newspapers entirely), and you'd be surprised how many interviews that's gotten me.
Admittedly, I like the part of my job that entails going to games and talking to people. It's the rest of it that grinds on me. And I came to the conclusion that if I'm not doing a job I like, then I want my nights and weekends back and more money.

 

Tech writing.

I understand the whole idea of having an identity as a sports writer. It was certainly a neat reaction when I told people I was a sports writer, certainly better than what I get as a tech writer. But I'll gladly take that tradeoff for the nights and weekends off; getting all holidays off; getting to take vacation when I want; and a decent paycheck. And, the funny thing is, I feel more connected to sports now. It's great sitting on the couch watching college football from noon to midnight with no concerns whatsoever about deadlines.

 

I guess with my new job, I'm sort of wedging my way out of the business. It's still a newspaper, but I'm not going to be a sports reporter anymore. I wish I could say it was a sad moment, but I firmly believe there's haves and have-nots in our profession, and I landed pretty hard in the have-not side of the ledger some time ago. The business isn't going to be rocked to its core if I never affix my byline to another story. And it's just recently that I finally came to grips with it.

So now, understanding my place in the world, I just want to make a decent living and be moderately happy with whatever time God has deigned to allow me. And if this job doesn't work out, for whatever reason, then that's probably it, and it's not exactly going to be mourned. I was an average small-town writer. And that wasn't going to change. So either I accept it or I find something new. Thank God I found something new, because I probably would have killed myself if the only thing at which I'm even remotely talented was an eternity shuffling between anonymous papers. Which may well have been the only place I could ever hope to write, but when you still harbor delusions of adequacy in defiance of mountains of evidence to the contrary, it's a bitter pill.

But better to find that out now as a 33-year-old flameout than a 45-year-old fringe player, right?

 

Anyouare? wrote: And I came to the conclusion that if I'm not doing a job I like, then I want my nights and weekends back and more money.



For all of the pontificating on this topic that gets done here, this is the most intelligent thought posted. Nail, meet head.

 

my only advice is to be careful what you wish for. i used to be a sports writer. then i went to law school. now i'm a lawyer.

a lot of times it's cool. other times, not so much. it's a job and like all jobs, including sports writer, has its pros and cons.

 

Understood. But while I'm still young, I owe myself the chance to at least take a long look at it. No raises. No upward mobility. Crazy-ass hours. Staying in this business without looking elsewhere isn't fair to my family or myself. I deserve more.