Here are 10 reasons you should be a journalist:

1. You get paid to be ignorant. It is your job to ask questions. You are not expected to know answers.

2. You are invited to places you don’t belong…somebody’s office, a horse stable, jail, fundraiser. You don’t belong, but you waltz right in.

3. Others expect you to be bossy…assertive and authoritative. But you don’t have to lead. Others do that heavy lifting.

4. It’s easy. What’s so hard about listening?

5. Rules of behavior are clear. Tell the truth. No matter what, tell the truth.

6. You are never alone. Every story is collective. You write words but the story goes nowhere without the work of a team.

7. You court fame without burden. Interviewing famous or infamous people doesn’t make you famous or infamous, but it tends to feel like it does.

8. You learn. Others tell you things, things you didn’t know until they taught you.

9. You can dismiss all humanity entirely with a sentence: “I am on deadline.”

10. You exist. A byline says so.