Driving along Interstate 90 from one end of South Dakota to the other, I did a lot of thinking. As a journalist with The Associated Press, I covered everything from airplane crashes to tornadoes to Native American tribes to off-beat stories like the world’s largest teddy bear collection.

Crisscrossing the state chasing the best stories was part of my job, and I loved every second of it.

Until I didn’t.

The Associated Press — the venerated wire service read by 4 billion people each day — is one of the preeminent news organizations. I’d worked in high school and college to attain that job.

Soon though, the breaking news got to me. I quit and became a freelance journalist, determined to tell the stories I was most excited about.

Unfortunately, the business of freelancing didn’t make econ

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