A few weeks ago I accepted assignments that I was intimidated by. They seemed like a lot of work and neither was or is in my wheelhouse. But I took them because they paid well and I figured that the editors must have thought I could do them for a reason so why not try to live up to their insanely high expectations.

I am barely into one, so that may still crash and burn. But I think I am over the top of the hill of another one, and I feel really proud of myself. I worked really hard on it. The funny thing is, I know for a fact there are going to be a lot of people who think (assuming it gets vetted and published) it is stupid and wrong, because it's on a topic that people feel passionately about. I feel okay with this because while I don't know anything, the people I spoke with do, and that might actually be reporting. I talked to a lot of people for this piece, and enjoyed it! I learned things from talking to them and I literally went places I had never been, so I'm glad I took the job (and also: money). I'm also glad I feel this way about this assignment because I felt like it was taking me away from my family a bit so I'm glad to sense it was for a good cause and not just something I wasted a lot of time on.