In 1974, my junior high English teacher approached me and asked me to join the staff of our school newspaper. I had always liked to write, so I readily accepted.
Later that school year, I participated in a career day, and was sent to the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail, where to the chagrin of the seasoned reporters there, I spent the day peering over their collective shoulders.
This was before children were coddled like so much fluff, and the language, along with the topics of conversation in the newsroom, were salty, to say the least.
I was in eighth grade and hooked.
Over the course of my junior high and high school years, the two managing editors of my two hometown dailies allowed me to come into their newsrooms to observe, ask questions and absorb the atmosphere.
Although I had decided as a teenager to become a writer, that dream had to be put on hold. Life became filled with the routine things — college, marriage, babies, a career and all the trimmings – or trappings – depending upon one’s perspective.
A move to St. Simons Island in the mid-1990s resulted in a series of jobs – some that I liked, some I did not, and one I absolutely adored.
Having become bored at home after my children were grown, I decided to return to work, and one day, while perusing the classified section of The Brunswick News, I saw it.
The paper was advertising for a “news aide.” A news aide helps everyone in the newsroom juggle their load – he or she generally takes care of the obituaries, performs some clerical functions, and assists with whatever the editors need done.
This was it, I thought. It’s my opportunity to get join the staff of a newspaper.
Boy, howdy, was it.
I spent a little less than a year as the news aide, and subsequently became a reporter, before being named Community Life editor two or so years ago.
In my tenure here, I’ve learned a lot about the community and its people.
When, over the course of six years, you’ve gotten to cover a missing child case and a mass murder, along with non-profit organizations, churches, garden walks, tours of homes, symphony concerts and art exhibits, you come in contact with a broad cross-section of the population.
I like to think I’ve made some good friends along the way, especially among my colleagues in the newsroom and the community.
So now, as I leave to embark on a series of new adventures, it is with some reluctance.
I was taught early on that journalists are to be watchdogs on behalf of the public.
If I’ve accomplished that in some small measure, I will consider my time at The Brunswick News a success.
Happy trails.
No comments:
Post a Comment