Sometimes, it’s OK to quit

Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.

Sometimes, it’s OK to quit.

I quit my first (and only) journalism job, hopped on a plane and went to see Mount Rushmore.

I stayed at a weekly paper (and later a daily website) for seven years because I felt like I owed something to the people who hired a reporter with cerebral palsy who was right out of college and had no experience except a summer internship at their paper.

I heard an episode of Longform podcast the other day, and the show featured longform writer Susan Orlean.

She said she’d never had, “the burning desire to know things first,” and she was always drawn to what’s known in journalism as feature writing.

The whole episode was good, but when I heard her say she never had the burning desire to know things first, it resonated with me.

It is me.

I was also always more drawn to feature stories, because they’re stories you have more time to structure, set up with details and even pick out the best word or the word that sounds right.

It may seem weird, but I use sound a lot when I write.

If a word or sentence doesn’t “sound right,” or fit into the “rhythm” of the story, I’ll change it until I find what does.

Most of the time with news — especially hard news or breaking news stories — you don’t have the luxury of time to do those things.

Great news reporters are right, first.

I never had the desire to be first if I couldn’t be sure I was right, which got me scooped by better reporters at other papers unless I had an arrangement for an interview on deadline.

I got too old and tired of deadline days after all-nighters spent writing in Waffle House booths.

I was never, at any one time, the best writer, reporter or editor there, which was a good thing to me because I always had people from whom I could learn.

I tried to be a sponge, and they helped me improve because they invested in me.

I was also nowhere near the best photographer or videographer, but we had the best I’ve seen to make up for my utter lack of ability there.

I hated being on call for news.

Writing game stories long after extra innings, rain delays or tournaments was a lot.

It’s the nature of the beast in journalism, though.

If you don’t have the burning desire to know things first and you don’t write features, the job will weigh on you.

I began to believe I’d paid the debt I owed my bosses for the chance they took on me.

The time came when the only burning desire I had was to go see new places so I saw Mount Rushmore and it’s worked out well.