What Does Caroline ACTUALLY Do for a Living?

Good question.

Obviously, I can't spend all of my time on vacation. And while most of my posts are about travel and adventure, in reality, the majority of my time is spent working. Travel is my hobby. 

Professionally, I'm a journalist. Currently, I'm a columnist for the Orange County Penny-Record in Southeast Texas. I write about youth issues. In the past, I worked for my college newspaper, the Baylor Lariat, holding positions from copy editor to editor-in-chief. I've contributed to the Dallas Morning News. I even wrote for my high-school newspaper. I've been interested in journalism for a long time. For as long as I can remember, actually. 

I see my job like this: I'm paid to have adventures. I get to talk to fascinating people and write about them and see news happen and other people pay me for it! How cool is that? 

It's not work to me. Despite the long hours, the unpredictability, the stress of the job — one little mistake and I can be sued — I love it. I'm in my element during a breaking story. I love writing. I even love editing or taking pictures. 

I've loved it ever since I was a little girl, watching my dad work as a journalist from behind a corner or inside his big, white news van. He was a videographer during my childhood, although he eventually left news to go into coaching. I didn't understand that decision at first. We're so alike, you see — we share a sense of adventure and like to do the same kinds of things when we travel, seeking out local color and food. (My mother and little sister, who are as alike to each other as Dad and I are, prefer staying close to home and their friends.) 

I took my Dad's rejection of journalism as a rejection of the things we had in common, and ultimately, of me, his daughter. This was, of course, completely off the mark, which you can read about in my latest column for the Penny-Record.   

Anyway, I got to have a lot of really cool adventures as a little girl because of that job, and I guess it stuck with me. I can't imagine doing anything else. And I don't want to. Even when I'm not sitting on a beach or eating great food, my sense of adventure is satisfied by the day-in and day-out of journalism, and it's a pretty great way to live.