Walked On

I love being a photojournalist, don’t get me wrong. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to be a full fledged member of the Channel 5 Eyewitness News team.
But it’s taking so much out of me.

I want people to be able to respect my work ethic. I want to be that guy everybody calls when they need somebody dependable to get the breaking news NOW. And I am that guy.
I’m that guy way too much.

I think the straw that broke this camels back was a few weeks ago when a reporter who shall remain nameless called me on my day off, stressed because she had a shoot an hour away and didn’t know that she’d be able to get there and back with enough time to put it together for the ten o’clock news.

Without asking any questions, I told her I’d be there as soon as possible. I dropped the book I was reading, because homework can wait when news is happening, and sped off to the station.

When I got there, I found out it wasn’t an important story at all. Some college students built a mountain of artificial snow and were snowboarding.

This is what I dropped my homework for, on my day off.

I got the story without complaining. I returned to the station with an hour to spare, plenty of time to edit the piece for the ten.

I am the breaking news guy. Everybody knows that.

And they’re going to walk all over me until I bleed.