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Construction workers don't like spending long hours outdooors in sub-zero weather. Doctors don't like losing patients, or telling a family a loved one will survive but not recover. Firefighters don't like sitting around the fire station, cleaning equipment or filling out reports. Soldiers don't like watching people die, or being responsible for killing them.
So it's all relative, all a balance of joy and sadness.
Cary wrote beautifully about making his own peace with the field so many of us love passionately yet painfully.
You can use your skills as a journalist to investigate other areas of interest you may have. That could lead to a new profession for you, or at least an area of journalism that will let you minimize the tension and conflict. You can write about entertainment, or become an entertainer. You can write about cooking, theology, science or travel. Maybe you are meant to write plays or novels.
Before you quit journalism, however, remember that overcoming the tension and conflict and fear and procrastination are part of what makes this all so exciting.
I run a community journalism website and one of my board members just wrote his first real news story, about a controversial new city council member. This is a small town with small controversies and I wouldn't have thought twice about writing the story. He worried and worried -- and was beside himself with joy when he posted the story and the tracker started showing how many people were reading it. The worry was gone.
So make sure your meds are working, force yourself to work through the stress and write the very best work you can, then frame it and hang it on your walls. When you look at it and no longer feel that rush of accomplishment, start writing -- your resume.
