Remembering why I left the field

I left the field in December, and still talk to a few people from the field. It was a local daily, and often times I was unprepared for what was expected. I checked the paper online yesterday, and immediately remembered why i left the field; There were a dozen stories about the youth soccer tournament the paper is putting out. Youth sports were the bane of my existence and said paper. So much work , just to fill up space on a mid-week edition.


I respect you guys that work the locals, but that shit drove me crazy (which wasn't a long trek anyways)

If I was ever going to go back in, it would HAVE to be at a larger paper.

 

And I do not mean this unkindly, but you have made a good choice to seek your bliss elsewhere.

If your goal was really to work at a larger paper, then you should have been prepared to do the work you're assigned as well as you could -- not in order to advance your career prospects, but in your role as a professional.

Better that you cash a check elswehere amd let somebody else give it a crack.

 

does anyone really enjoy attending those youth soccer camps and shit like that?

 

Covered a community run one time ... a big, big, big community run that our paper covered to a silly degree. I hated the damn thing, but had to cover it, along with two other guys. Standing there with the other two, looking for angles, bullshitting, the usual. One of the guys is just bitching up a storm ... making snarky comments and just generally being a miserable prick of a human being.

The other guy says, "Doug, take a look around you. See all of these people, having a good time, smiling, they looked forward to this for months and can't wait to read about it tomorrow in the paper ... and you are the only person who doesn't seem to be enjoying himself. Think about that for a moment."

Then he walked away. A smart guy who made a great point.

 

I feel your pain, Fiddy. I don't think I would be in the business today if I had had to cover youth sports regularly at my first job. There are indignities in every job, but we all have our limits.

 

That is a good point. Conversely, I once covered a triathlon and talked to the female winner who spent 20 minutes bitching about why our paper didn't cover her or their sport better.

 

I loved covering the minors ... now mind you, high school basketball and volleyball I can live without. But bantam and midget hockey is pretty damn good and the kids are often refreshingly honest.

 

Most fun thing I have ever covered -- and I have done plenty of the traditional "big stuff -- was a regional NASCAR series. Most down-to-earth, eager guys I've ever talked to. Great quotes and easy writing. Was bored out of my effing gourde during the races, but they were great people to deal with and made what would have been a miserable story pretty good.

 

Thanks to your post, I'm remembering how glad I am to work with people who just STFU and do their jobs.
Yeah, it ain't always the Final Four, Daytona 500 or the Super Bowl, but every job, every profession has it's "shit that drives me crazy." I'm not a proponent for blowout youth coverage, but there are good stories out there no matter the level. That's the thing a lot of people don't understand: Stories are stories. Being able to professionally handle the "shit that drives me crazy" says alot about how you'll handle the "large paper" stuff.

Peace out. Enjoy whatever it is you do now. Hopefully you're at the top of that profession in the six months since you left ours.

 

I got a tersely worded e-mail from a disgruntled parent today, but hey:

I WAKE UP EVERY DAY AND LOVE WHAT I DO.

Got the best job in the world.

 

You know, H-squared, you make a good point in a bad way.

Perhaps, like many if not most on this board, 50 Scents HAD paid his dues, HAD covered more than his share of youth soccer and Little League tournaments, HAD busted his ass with the preached-to hope that it would pay off down the line with a better gig.

Does he have the right to mail it in? Of course not. He does have an obligation to leave it all on the field -- on every assignment. And if the above isn't true, I sit corrected.

Does he have the right to vent about this and not have someone take an unwarranted shot at him? Absolutely.

 

No shot intended, which is why I wrote the thing the way I did. It's possible that fiddy's time at the local paper had all the backstory you suggest -- and if so, you gotta take that into account. I just didn't get that impression from what he/she wrote.