For the first time in my career, I desperately want to impress my editor. I refuse to delete that comment because you were probably intrigued by my embarrassing admission. Everyone wants to wow their boss. In tomorrow's paper, I will have a story on a grass-roots syringe cleanup and another story on a vacant motel that doubles as a homeless drug den. I don't know if either story will appear on the front page, and really, I don't care. The right people will read them.
I estimate that in three-plus months at The Olympian, I have cranked out 100 stories. That's a lot of practice. I am feeling more comfortable in the job. The best learning experiences occur when you jump from one fishbowl to another. Olympia is the crunchiest fishbowl I've swam in so far in Washington. I did swim in the New York City area for a summer internship back in 1999. That was the busiest fishbowl, reserved for certain breeds.
I am reminded of previous fishbowls. I was hatched in Tacoma, then moved to Germany for two-plus years, then to Ohio and Oklahoma before settling in Northwest Indiana at age 5. At age 18, I moved down to central Indiana to attend college, and at 22, I moved to Arizona. Five and a half years later, we moved to Tacoma. That was eight-plus years ago.
Each fishbowl had its own culture and politics. Indiana and Arizona were conservative and less tolerant of non-conforming lifestyle decisions. Here in Western Washington, we live in a diverse bastion of progressive thought. I admit, sometimes it's even too liberal for me. But just sometimes. I have always leaned left, but with a conservative streak. Or maybe it's more libertarian. I think libertarianism will rise to the forefront as the Millenial Generation comes of age. I sense more libertarian values in that generation, even though their tech-gadget passive-aggressiveness sometimes annoys the shit out of me.
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