February 17, 2011

• Giving Advice

  We were at a party; she was complaining vociferously about her life and career. She had the too-thin limbs of heroin chic and the sunken eyes of one who had seen the sun rise from the wrong side many a time. She chatted with a girl to my left, who had been peppering me with random questions about various scientific methods, but who had broken off her line of inquiry upon seeing her old friend approach.

  “Sociology sucks. I want to do journalism,” Thin Girl declared grandly.

  Knowing it was unlikely I would be taken fully seriously, but feeling oddly compelled to comment, I stepped into their conversation. “Journalism, eh?”

  She laughed, and eyed me. “You look like you know all about it – steepling your hands like that.”

  “Well,” I said, and ran down my brief experiences with journalism. “It’s not really a healthy field,” I concluded, “but it’s interesting, and as a sociology major you certainly have an angle on it. Ever hear of Barbara Ehrenreich?”

  They both nodded. “Of course,” murmured Inquisitive Girl. “Who hasn’t?”

  “Because the general public doesn’t think to examine problems from a sociological angle, Ehrenreich got a lot of mileage out of doing so. You can do the same thing, of course, as you are trained to do it. Get a column somewhere, work your way up, build an audience . . . “

  “Ah,” said a smiling man, joining our circle. “But that’s already been done, then, hasn’t it?”

  “There can be only one Ehrenreich,” agreed the girls. “No point in copying her.”

  I didn’t really think so, but I spread my hands in acquiescence. “Mmm. Well then, your other angle for standing out is to take risks no one else will. Embed yourself in a military unit, or cover disasters like Haiti, or something. Write about unusual things no one will be able to ignore.”

  Her eyes flickered away. “Risk my life? I think I’d rather not.” She half-turned.

  I shrugged at her back.

  Five minutes later, I heard her declare to a man that she was looking into journalism as a career option, as her present job sucked.

  • 11:45 pm
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