Being a professional journalist sometimes means...

...doing the job when everything is conspiring against you. Like yesterday, when I was sick with something and still had to work. Got hit with some sort of nasty bug, or maybe allergies, who knows. All I know is, I was sneezing and coughing almost non-stop. I was weak and tired. I wanted to go to bed in the worst way. I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep so badly. I wanted to do anything but write. But then, news broke here in New York City. Big news. Sports news. The Knicks hired a new coach. And, suddenly, being the sports columnist for my paper, I was called upon to write about it. Of all days, it had to happen on this day. Great. I immediately went into the bathroom to splash cold water on my face, brewed some fresh espresso, and went into my bedroom to hit my computer. Writing is hard enough to do when you're feeling great, much less when you're feeling lousy. Still, I tried desperately to bang out the words as best as I could. It was painful, I won't lie, but I did it. I'm sure it wasn't my best work, but it got done. I made deadline and made it into the paper the next day. Readers will never know the back story, of course, but my editor did. And he thanked me for coming through in the clutch. Sometimes, there are just days like this. It's what being a pro is all about. It doesn't make me special. It merely makes me another journalist doing the job, no matter what.