FREELANCE REPORTER
When you look at advertisements, everyone claims to be the “best copywriter in the city,” or the “best personal injury attorney in the state,” or the “best accountant in the neighborhood” or however much someone wants to glorify themselves and their services. It gets annoying. No one can be the best anything when everybody is actually claiming to be the best. My father worked as a freelance reporter for 20 years. Whenever he rang up someone, looking for a story, or trying to sell one of the stories he’d just written, he never claimed to be the best. He was freelance and he knew there were dozens of other freelancers out there with stories. He wanted to let his story and his work speak for itself. That’s how he built up his reputation and that’s how he earned his living. He was genuine and people always knew what they were getting when they dealt with him. He made enough money doing this, getting people to trust him and his opinion, that he could have raised me and sent me to school. And I’m trying to do him proud. I’m in school for journalism and have already published a few freelance pieces. I’m not anywhere close to his level yet, but I’m getting there.