#nationalhuganewspersonday

So that’s a thing. Hugging a news person.

Not so different than when I was a talent agent and I’d scrunch up my nose, shrug my shoulders and nearly cringe before saying what I did for a living. Not because I didn’t love it and I wasn’t passionate about it, but the reaction. Just like some lawyers, talent agents are the enemy. Didn’t you know? It’s a thing.

And now in the day of #fakenews and #alternativefacts when I tell people what I do, I scrunch my nose, shrug my shoulders and say “I’m actually a reporter”. Usually I get ‘wow, cool” or “where” or any number of questions, but mostly it’s a bunch of questions about how challenging my work must be, or how can you do that in this political climate, etc. blah, blah, blah, you know the drill.

My response? How can I not! I have had some moments. Who in this job, or currently in this lifetime, hasn’t? Why do I do what I do. Again, how can I not? From the age of 12, all I wanted to do was write. Then it hit me in high school, I had to write news. Then in college, I had to speak the news.

So just like when I was a talent agent, I don’t always share what I do with people. Sometimes I just say I work at home. Or, I’ll say I work in radio, or “I write news, but not national”, then change the subject. But really, there’s no need to even talk much about it negatively or positively, it just is. Just like how we need to stay neutral in our reporting.

So it doesn’t hurt to give a news person a hug! And while you’re at it, hug a talent agent and lawyer too 😉