Its always been my dream

Truth be told, there are days I hate it.

But for the guy who started this thread, this business isn't all bad. Sometimes I still fear that people will realize I don't do anything to contribute to society. I'm not our curing cancer, teaching children or saving burning buildings. I spend my days (nights and weekends, too) attending sporting events and telling people what happened. But having said that, I don't know that I'd want to go into another line of work if I had the option. Sure, the money sucks, but what they hell else am I going to do with a Journalism degree?

Like any job, there are highs and lows. But I think in this business, the highs are what you make them.

 

fantasy, don't fall for that line of thinking. we're not curing cancer,t eaaching children or fighting fires, but we still contribute to society. besides, your contribution goes beyond our career.

 

Mr. Sizzle;

Providing you haven't been thouroughly weirded out, I'll toss out a couple of thoughts from my first few years of being wedged up in this business...

* In case you haven't picked it up, sports writing can be a little like the lunchroom at your high school. And in this case, sitting at the cool kids' table means bitching about your job. You may find that a share of people in this business espouse bitterness of some kind, but you may also notice that they're still in the business. This is because it's much cooler to be grizzled and jaded than it is to be enjoying the process and the people you work with. Can the job suck? You bet. The people? Ditto. But that's true in every job ever created. Bitching is cathartic, but just like angry sex, you can take it too far.

* You have heard this already. You will hear it again. I don't care. You need to hear it some more. READ! And I don't mean just sports. You need to become well read, because books are some of the best windows into the human condition. And you may notice that the best sports stories, and the best sports writers, often chronicle themes that reach to people, not just sports fans. You don't pick up nuance, people skills and empathy by reading Just Give Me The Damn Ball.

* Common myth: Editors are great mentors. Fact: Yes, some are. And some want to just come in and collect a paycheck. If you're looking for someone in the newsroom to be your go-to guy for questions and advice, don't limit yourself to just your SE. Find the best people on news-side, too. Sports departments sometimes have a clannishness about them, but if you don't make yourself known to the news department, you're just hurting yourself.

* Don't become a Sports Guy. Life is short, and I have strong beliefs about where I'm going to go when I die: In the ground, where worms will conduct family reunion banquets on my cheekbones. I'm not about to waste the blink of light I have by getting up in the morning, reading the sports page, heading to my sports job, checking my fantasy football stats, coming home and watching sports. Yes, it can be a time-consuming, all-encompassing job. But find a life away from sports. Find out who you are away from games. It will help both your personal life, and your writing.

* And I'll back it up. If you just see writing as a means of getting into games for free, leave. Now.

 

Question...
How many of these "advice threads" do we have to answer...
The answers are all the same. The jokes, although still amusing, are all the same.
You grumpy bastards (myself included) are all the same.
When a post begins "Hi. I'm 18..." there should be a macro that posts the last 10 threads on the same subject...

 

Sweet. Well said.

As far as somebody who's 18 not having a ton of experience, that's not necessarily true. If you've been working at a professional paper for 3-4 years, stringing, working the office 25-30 hours a week, that can be a ton of experience.

To the 17-18somethings thinking about this for a career, I urge you to consider one thing. Keep your options open. Honestly, you do not know if the print product is going to be relevant in its current form when you're 30. Make sure that if there IS a full shift toward online presentation, you'll be ready for it. Understand and get experience in that genre as well as you understand the print genre.

 

Not to be an butthole, but ...

experience is the way it's spelled. Not expierence. It's called spell check.

I'll let you slide on the im instead of I'm, because you're a kid, and it seems all kids are are more into texting than typing.

... published in are local newspaper ... not OUR local newspaper.

The reason I say any of this is not to be a butthole, but to stress to you the fact that nobody is going to take you seriously if you don't know the basics first. As an editor, I'd rather have a clean, average story than an above average story I need to spend 40 minutes cleaning up.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On to your real question.


I have a addiction to smoking hot women. Always have. In and fresh out of college, I dated a lot of smoking hot women. Know this about smoking hot women: if you leave them alone too many Friday and Saturday nights, they'll be someone else's smoking hot woman.

I couldn't even begin to count how many relationships have been perfect for 6-7 months and then August comes, and things start to hit the rocks with you at practice 24-7, but you make it because you're still there with her at night. Then the season hits and you're there MOST nights, but not the date nights when she's the only one going to parties and get togethers where everyone asks, "Where's I'll never tell?"

A less-than-perfect woman can only answer that question so many times. And when it's a guy that asks her that question, and she knows (or thinks) if she's with him, he'll be with her at those things ... then you're screwed. And she's screwed, too, but in the Boots kind of way.

Are all smoking hot women like that? No. Are the ones that aren't hard to find? Yes.

Covering a major college takes away a lot of your life. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but at the same time, it can suck the life out of you.

And if you want to cover NASCAR, you can toss your life (family) out the window. Leave your house on Wednesday, get home Sunday night/Monday morning. I came to that crossroads at 27 and couldn't pull the trigger.

I'm rambling. All I'm saying about wives and/or significant others is this: Don't try and find one that will say I do, find one that will say I'll do without.

 

He's a kid. I don't curse in front of kids.

You're right, I should have at least used buttmunch.

 

I don't want to beat this dead horse anymore, but if we all were paid better, we all might have wives who didn't mind that we were gone from August to December.

I guess the answer is to marry money.

 

Really, the best answer, IMHO, is to make it really, REALLY clear, early in the relationship: "Hey, this is my life. These are my hours. They're not going to change. Understand that, because I don't want to be having this argument three years from now."

You may miss some good recreational sex with this method, but when you find the one, there's a much better chance that they'll REALLY be the one.

 

I agree with Shotty. That's the only way to go.

 

Seniors, if you can get by the sacrcastic assholes, there's been some outstanding and thoughtful advice here. I'll just add this: I've been doing this job for a long time and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I'd think long and hard about making sports journalism my career. Never mind the pay, the hours, the family life, but consider the industry itself. I fear for us all. Circulations are falling daily, staffs and budgets are being cut...you know the drill. I sincerely hope I can make it to retirement, because, personally, I don't know how to do anything else. So think long and think hard.

 

Wellllll ... I kind of agree with that down the line.

But you can't never mind the pay, the hours, the family life. That's about the quality of life.

Outside of that, it's a great point.