In 2007, Drew Barrymore was quoted on the cover of a magazine saying, “Screw Hollywood, I’m going to be a travel writer.”
Her comment touched a nerve. (I wrote a “Letter to a Young Travel Writer” for my travel section.) For nearly two decades I had worked at a job that was generally perceived to be something anyone could do. Yet I had specifically set out to become a travel writer – living abroad, learning languages, reading travel classics.
So I was always a little annoyed when people told me, as they invariably did, that they would love to have my job. They understood neither its workings – shoe leather reporting, often in places where you don’t speak the language – nor the lengthy apprenticeship I had undertaken to get it. That a famous actor had now joined the legions of the envious was, admittedly, somewhat flattering, but it reinforced the notion that mine was a profession devoid of qualifications.
Yesterday I turned on ‘CBS This Morning’ and saw Drew Barrymore sitting with Gayle King and Anthony Mason. She was not being interviewed by them; she was adding her voice to their discussion of the day’s news. She wore big glasses and a serious expression and, at one point, she conducted an interview with one of the correspondents. She was only a guest host, I eventually learned, and only for two days. But I sympathized with all the talented, experienced journalists who deserve a place at that table. And I say to them sincerely: I’d prefer she were writing travel stories.
