“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi

The News is down to one staff writer right now as we hunt for two more to round out our newsroom.

Like a lot of businesses who’ve struggled to find help, we’ve had a bit of trouble finding anyone to take those reporter slots.

Part of the problem is that kids just aren’t pursuing journalism careers like they used to.

I couldn’t find any reliable current data specifically on the number of journalism degrees awarded each year. The latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics is six years old and shows the number of journalism school degrees dropped about 2% between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years. That organization says the number of degrees awarded in liberal arts, general studies, and humanities (which would include journalism and many other fields) dropped about 7% between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 academic years. J-school degrees make up a tiny fraction of all degrees conferred.

That means places like The News simply have a smaller pool of potential candidates to choose from, even as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows some 4,500 job openings for reporters last year.

Small dailies such as The News often act as the birthplace of careers, the places where fresh college graduates learn the ins and outs of reporting before moving on to bigger papers.

But, with so few applicants from which to choose, some bigger papers are scooping up fresh college grads, leaving an even smaller pool of applicants for small dailies such as us.

I blame Spider-Man.

For decades, the web-slinger worked in his day job as a freelance photographer for a newspaper, the Daily Bugle. Yet, years ago, I remember they launched a new Spider-Man animated series in which he worked not as a newspaper photographer but as a Web designer.

While I appreciate the pun, that meant potentially millions of kids lost the first journalist they might look up to.

I owe my career in part to watching Superman/Clark Kent work as a reporter for the Daily Planet in the Christopher Reeve films and in the old Fleischer cartoons. The excitement of working where the action is, pursuing truth and justice, was too alluring to pass up.

It’s a real shame so few kids choose journalism as a career.

For all the ballyhoo about the death of newspapers, plenty of us rags are still kicking around and causing trouble, and many of us — including The News — are going strong.

And journalism remains one of the most fulfilling and rewarding careers I can think of.

My career has taken me all over the state of Michigan and to Philadelphia and San Antonio, Texas, and our nation’s capital.

I’ve had the chance to meet numerous celebrities, including Jen Chapin, a singer/songwriter and the daughter of “Cat’s in the Cradle” singer Harry Chapin, Zakk Wylde, former guitarist for Ozzie Osbourne and frontman for Black Label Society, and Art Alexakis, frontman for my favorite band, Everclear, along with numerous up-and-coming and already-up politicians, including then-first lady Laura Bush.

But, more importantly, I’ve met scores of wonderful everyday Michiganders who’ve blessed me by sharing their stories of triumph and tragedy, heartbreak and healing, and success and setbacks.

I’ve sat at the deathbed of a beautiful young girl losing her battle with cancer and gone toe-to-toe with convicted murderers and wept with survivors of sexual abuse. I’ve marched with hundreds of kids hoping to reclaim their school’s identity and sat in the room, scrawling in my notebook, as community leaders pushed the chiefs of two rival violent gangs to shake hands.

I’ve flown in a hot-air balloon and zipped around a training course in the back seat of a Michigan State Police cruiser and dove to a sunken car in the training pool with conservation officer recruits. I’ve visited prisons. I’ve covered rallies for Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

And all along the way I’ve had the chance to learn so much about the world around me and the people who make that world turn.

I can’t think of another job that offers those kinds of experiences.

Most rewarding, however, is the chance to write all of that up and share my newfound knowledge with my readers, to give voice to the voiceless, and to right wrongs. Laws have been introduced and charities have been flooded with donations because of stories I’ve written. Most importantly, my readers have used my writing to make more informed choices about how to interact with their communities.

Journalism offers the chance to not only make a living but to live a life full of interesting experiences and intriguing people, and I wouldn’t trade this job for anything in the world.

Here’s hoping more young people will follow me into this gig, and that a couple of them come here to The News.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.