From zero to Lois Lane
May. 5th, 2011 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI remember my parents once bemoaning the fact that their oldest grandchild seemed so anchorless. He was not interested in school and nearly done with it and had no plans. I told them to give him 30 years and relax. Look at me! Case in point.
I disliked school largely because I sucked at it. And about everything else. I got into college because while I sucked at school, my parents shelled out big bucks for me to suck at a private one so on the school curve, I was chewing gravel but in the general population, I was hanging in with mediocre. Again my parents opened up their wallets and paid for four years of college where I divided the time between playing bridge and peace marches.
When forced to pick a major, I picked Communications which, at that time, was radio and newspapers/advertising. It was before Watergate when Woodward and Bernstien put a cool face on reporting. My main reason for picking Communications was it was about the smallest department on campus - 20 students and, until I signed up, all male.
I breezed through and actually didn't suck at it. I got a job as a reporter on the Wheeling, WVA evening paper my junior year and started my career as Lois Lane. After I graduated, I worked on a couple of other newspapers and soon realized why Lois was so obsessed with Superman - newspapering was not all that interesting after all. And the pay not only sucked, the prospects for decent pay in the future - wasn't much better. Parade Magazine told me one Sunday that Helen Thomas - THE only female name in print journalism at the time - was making $27K after nearly 30 years of reporting. That week I quit.
I landed on my feet and have managed to carve out a lovely life with a history of fun and interesting jobs. It just took me a while to get started.
And, by the way, my parents' oldest grandson didn't even take 30 years to shape up into a fine and interesting and responsible and successful husband and father.
We start late but we finish strong.
I disliked school largely because I sucked at it. And about everything else. I got into college because while I sucked at school, my parents shelled out big bucks for me to suck at a private one so on the school curve, I was chewing gravel but in the general population, I was hanging in with mediocre. Again my parents opened up their wallets and paid for four years of college where I divided the time between playing bridge and peace marches.
When forced to pick a major, I picked Communications which, at that time, was radio and newspapers/advertising. It was before Watergate when Woodward and Bernstien put a cool face on reporting. My main reason for picking Communications was it was about the smallest department on campus - 20 students and, until I signed up, all male.
I breezed through and actually didn't suck at it. I got a job as a reporter on the Wheeling, WVA evening paper my junior year and started my career as Lois Lane. After I graduated, I worked on a couple of other newspapers and soon realized why Lois was so obsessed with Superman - newspapering was not all that interesting after all. And the pay not only sucked, the prospects for decent pay in the future - wasn't much better. Parade Magazine told me one Sunday that Helen Thomas - THE only female name in print journalism at the time - was making $27K after nearly 30 years of reporting. That week I quit.
I landed on my feet and have managed to carve out a lovely life with a history of fun and interesting jobs. It just took me a while to get started.
And, by the way, my parents' oldest grandson didn't even take 30 years to shape up into a fine and interesting and responsible and successful husband and father.
We start late but we finish strong.
