Mar. 31, 2005
WASHINGTON - Lesson Number One: Do not let the routine bring
you down.
The past three weeks have been relatively slow for me; Congress
ending
its two-week Easter/Spring hiatus, so work is relatively
slow in the
office. My one long-term project that is due today has been
slowly
but surely inching towards completion, but the day-in, day-out
routine
of making calls and organizing data and copy for this project
has been
taxing on my attention span and my energy.
Aside from a bout of food poisoning brought on by some reckless
dining, my energy, my energy to be in the city has dwindled
recently to
the point where I now instinctively ride the metro home
and then sit
down at my computer to sort through copy I send home from
work. An
occasional meal and a few CNN shows later, it's bed time.
Maybe it's the weather; it's been rainy and cloudy as of
late, but the
forecast calls for a really sunny weekend. Just in time
for the
Cherry Blossom Festival too, so I think that will be
a good cause for
celebration and overall joy.
A few words on journalism: it's taxing and it's brutal.
It's a field
that demands the worker to produce as much of his product
as he can in
as little time as possible. Pile that work environment
on a
journalist in Washington, and it gets even more complicated.
Where
Los Angeles and New York succeed in the manifestation
of culture and
diversity, D.C. far outpaces both of them when it comes
to being the
Home of Ideas. Everyone and every idea has an office
and a lobbying
staff, ready to advance the idea as far as possible.
And that is a problem for a journalist. There is no
amount of
immersion that can make a reporter know his topic
well enough to cover
all sides in a few short grafs. Yet the staff at
CongressDaily do
just that, day-in and day-out. It's both routine
and extraordinary at
the same time. It's an awesome dichotomy that makes
my newspaper
extremely cool to work at. But for a first-time intern,
it's also
extremely taxing.
My deadline fast approaches and I'm trying to wrangle
in the last few
congressmen who haven't returned my calls. Until
next time!
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