I have wanted to be a foreign correspondent myself since a little kid, but having a girlfriend and realizing how incredibly difficult it is to make it really has put me off from that idea, though I still have a burning in my blood to be a journalist despite no holidays hardly whatsoever, long hours, and pay that makes teachers look rich.
I actually wrote back and forth a little bit with Dozier via email, and she loved her job...she had a passion for it. I just pray she recovers.
Dozier's reporting on Iraq was better than average, some very good stories on reconstruction efforts, in fact. Some bad stories/lots of doom and gloom, but overall, better than average. Regardless, she knew how to tell a story well, even if it was not always as fair as it could have been.
If it's in your blood, nothing can stop you. Note also that nearly all the (male) traveling journalists are married and have families, so it's not impossible.
My sticking point was that even though I was a newshound, I wanted to do "soft" stories (I'm female) - more in-depth features and lots of up close and personal reporting on everyday people. I wanted there to be more "good news" going out to the world. As we know, though, "good news is not news."
How it worked out for me was going to the corporate side. You can do films and documentaries, magazine-type features, put on events, do charitable work--and get all the international travel you want, with a regular schedule and a home to come to.
The more you love what you do, the better you are at it. It's also true that if you do what you love, the money will come. Eventually.
I was doing two things I loved when the rug got pulled out from under me, my whole world collapsed and I haven't been the same person since. A writer has to write and a workhorse has to work - I hope I can get back to doing one or the other in the future.
Follow your heart and one day, you will wake up and say, "Wow, am I really here, doing this? Meeting my heroes, spending time with such interesting people--and someone is also paying me for this? Wow."