“Honey, when will you ever put that pen down?” “When I retire, darling.”
This is what I would tell my wife each time I was writing a new journal for my publicist. Back in the day, I was always on my feet, notebook and pen in hand, taking interviews of various people of interest just so that I could earn my wage.
And to be honest, I liked what I did. During my teenage days, I was the kind of kid that would read band interviews – and basically, read every magazine I could get my hands on. I liked to stay informed – about pop cultures, about politics, about everything that concerned my country and the way that I live.
This is why I went into humanities. I studied the language – because no one could be a great journalist without having a good grip on the language that they are writing in. If you have an idea, you need to know how to express it properly – in a way that the reader would understand.
So I graduated from the only college that I had an actual interest in: journalism. It was difficult, I admit – and I had a fair amount of breakdown. When I started off as a journalist, no one even took me seriously. I was the “newcomer,” so I had to freelance for several companies before I even got a steady job. My landlords were not happy with this; but I appreciate that they didn’t throw me out whenever I was late with the rent.
Eventually, things started to pick up. I became known locally, and I was starting to get the good gigs. My passion for writing settled in as I wrote article after article – and I was finally able to make a decent living out of it.
At some point, however, I retired. I spend most of my days now sitting on my front porch, reading articles written by young journalists – most of them posted on the internet. Let’s face it, no one really reads newspapers nowadays – and even I have a tablet and a computer which make things easier for me.
I am the kind of person that loves to be informed – and loves to offer information. It’s in my blood. After all, in order to have a good life, you always have to be informed – which is one of the reasons why I’m here, still writing for you.