what's a career in journalism like?

You write on the topic assigned by your editor, and the competition is fierce.

In the beginning, you get assigned stories. They're usually things like covering the police beat, school board meetings or writing obituaries, which are all good for training young reporters how to pay attention to facts, get names right, etc.

As you progress, you'll still be assigned stories but you'll also be expected to pitch stories to your editor. These will generally deal with whatever beat you've been assigned, simply because that will be the area you'll have the most knowledge on.

Eventually, you might reach a position where you can choose your topics more freely, but you'll still have to pitch them (make the argument to your editor that the story is worth pursuing).

Journalism is an easy field to get into if you're willing to move to a small town and work on the local paper. It becomes more competitive as you move into larger papers in larger markets.