The exact day this column runs (Friday), marks my last day as a copy editor with my buyout from The Tribune Company, which publishes The Aegis, taking effect. My journalism career began 17 years ago when I was lucky enough to be hired as an editorial assistant for The Northeast Times Booster and The Northeast Times Reporter, two weekly newspapers put out by Patuxent Publishing Co. (also owned by Tribune) that have since been combined into the single publication, The Northeast Booster Reporter, that is issued monthly.
I say lucky because I had majored in college in history with a minor in secondary education with the idea that I would become a teacher at the middle or high school level; although, I was never really certain about my plans even up until the time I graduated. As it turns out, I did not go into teaching and, after a few job detours, I set my sights on becoming a reporter. So after managing to get a few clips published, offering my writing services free of charge and getting hired as an editorial assistant at Patuxent, I, indeed, considered myself fortunate to have gained entrée into the illustrious world of journalism.
I was 27, full of ideals and still filled with the energy of youth. I had been especially inspired to enter the profession by Bill Moyers' "World of Ideas" series, in which the renowned Moyers, a sensitive and intelligent journalist, interviews experts from various fields — from philosophy and physics to poetry and history. I not only wanted to learn about big ideas, but also, and more importantly, I was drawn to the personal story involved in the interview process.
After a year as an editorial assistant writing one or two stories per week, I was promoted to full-fledged reporter and transferred from Patuxent's Towson office to The Catonsville Times, where I spent the next eight years covering anything and everything from general news and human interest to crime and the Maryland legislature in Annapolis. My best memories were spent talking to the people I wrote about in my stories, people who were generous in sharing a part of themselves not only with me, but also with the larger community of the paper's readership in interviews that became intimate conversations in which I and the person I was interviewing came away from the exchange with a sense that we had both gained something valuable.
In 2000, I gave birth to my son, and for the next eight years I worked part-time so I could spend more time at home with my child. I worked part-time as a reporter, then as a proofer back at Patuxent's Towson office and, most recently, as a copy editor with The Aegis, where two years ago I began working full-time again. Working at The Aegis has been a special experience because, for the first time, I have been working for a publication that serves the geographic area I live in. My position at The Aegis has allowed me the opportunity to work with a new generation of gifted young reporters, editing and fine tuning their stories, while also giving me the chance to write a column (such as this one) about once a month for the pp&t section, a creative endeavor which I have sometimes dragged my feet on, but know I am always better for having have accomplished in the long run.
Increasingly, though, I had come to grow restless in my current position, which involves a lot of time alone at the computer and a lot less human interaction than reporting, which I don't feel I can go back to because as the single parent of an 11-year-old it would be difficult to deal with that job's erratic schedule. Then last February, I was relocated to The Baltimore Sun building downtown as part of the closing of The Aegis printing facility on Hays Street. The one-hour, 60-mile round trip commute every day has been a time commitment I have believed to be more than I was willing to make and, as a result, ever since the move, I have been considering other career options.
I recently began working with a life coach and career counselor and made the decision to go back to school to earn a graduate degree in counseling. I still don't have all the details figured out, i.e., which school to attend, whether to attend full- or part-time, etc. What I do know is I am ready for a change and that a career in counseling will allow me to do what I loved most about journalism: talk to people and listen to what is on their hearts and minds.
In the end, I am grateful, above all, for the human connections I have made over the nearly two decades I have spent as a journalist. I am awed by the many people who chose to open up their lives and share their stories with me. I cherish the relationships I have developed with co-workers whose skills and talents I admired, not the least among those the ability to make me laugh.
And I am thankful to you, the reader, who has helped make it all possible.