I recently started attending a new church, and I found myself explaining my job to a group of people the other day. It’s always interesting to hear how people react when I say "I’m a journalist for the Jordan Independent." Explaining the job is usually a five-step process:

Step One: In most cases, I find myself explaining just what a journalist is. I tell the people that I don’t sell advertising or print the actual paper, but I do write and take pictures.

Step Two: I usually get asked what I write about. The most common assumption is that all local newspaper coverage is city council coverage. I explain to the people that I don’t cover city politics, or most politics in general. I cover schools, police and sometimes churches.

Step Three: I almost always have to explain that I am not a sports writer. Jordan has some great school sports teams, but I leave that up to our great sports editor, Brian Hall. I cover things like clubs, activities, music, classrooms, the school board, the students, and the teachers. Police coverage involves more than just the police report. Sometimes I write about important cases or new tactics in the department.

Step Four: I usually get asked if I take pictures. Yep, I do.

Step Five: Even though I’ve explained by this time what the majority of my job is, I usually get asked what kinds of stories I write. So I explain some of the stories I get to write.

The usual reaction is a sort of blank stare. It’s an interesting job, but not one about which a lot of people know much. Everyone gets their news somehow, but most people don’t really think about the people who gather the news.

While talking to the people at my new church, I got a reaction that I didn’t expect at all: "That sounds like you have the coolest job ever." I was taken aback. Deep down I know I have a very cool job, but it’s a good thing to be reminded every once in a while. It made me think about some of the things I’ve been able to do since becoming a newspaperman: high speed chases, cow corralling, paintballing, and fire watching – just to name a few. I’ve even been called and asked about the best steaks in town and about the best way to get from Jordan to other towns.

I do have a pretty interesting job.