It’s time to fare thee well, and it’s a good thing
It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I know it’s happening, I know it’s
positive, but the reality of the change I have just instituted in my
life won’t be concrete to me until next week. That’s when I will stop
being a journalist and switch careers, to copywrite for a Web site.
By the time you read this, my desk will be clean, the outgoing
message changed and the e-mail set to auto-reply my absence. I’ve
been person-ing the features desk at the Daily Pilot since August
2000. I’ve been with the company since Jan. 13, 1998. I’ve been in
journalism since I graduated from college in 1995 -- more than seven
years.
I am an accidental journalist. I often joke that I went on
vacation to Key West, Fla., and came back with a career. In reality,
it isn’t a joke. That’s what happened.
At first, I was a politics and county government writer for the
Key West Citizen, then its Paradise (read Datebook) editor and then
features editor. In late 1997, I decided to move home to California
and got a job with Times Community News as a page designer. I’ve been
with the Pilot -- with brief sojourns at the Times Orange County
building and the Huntington Beach Independent -- ever since.
My life in journalism has been amazing. I’ve done things and
talked with people I never thought I would.
In Key West, I flew in a seaplane in a storm to the Dry Tortugas
National Park, then closed because of a budget crisis, to witness the
head of the Conch Republic give the rangers a petition. The two bumpy
landings were among the scariest moments in my life.
For a feature story, I went undercover posing as the girlfriend of
a person who did illegal needle exchange, seeking to prevent HIV in
the Keys. I’ll never forget watching a dealer play with a pair of
crack rocks as if they were dice.
I’ve talked with cops, firefighters, Cuban refugees, mothers with
dead children, accident victims, government officials, military
colonels, millionaires, homeless persons, up-and-coming artists and
those who are stars. I’ve learned that everyone has a story.
As an editor, I’ve helped make decisions for what got on the front
page and what got covered in the arts sections. I’ve written
headlines and cutlines and shaped copy from reporters and columnists.
It’s a heady thing, knowing tomorrow’s news today.
Come Monday morning, I will go from someone who writes the news to
someone who reads the news.
Tony Dodero, the Pilot’s editor, asked me if I was melancholy.
“Not yet,” I said. “There’s too much work to be done.” But I know
when I slow down, I will be.
For those on the outside, working for a newspaper is a glamour
job, filled with prestige. On the inside, it is the work of a lot of
dedicated people who put in long hours and really have to love the
job, the readers and their beat in order to get through. It can be a
grind, but there are moments of complete joy when you know you’ve
helped inform someone or when a charity event is a success because
you cared enough to write about it, and someone read about it.
Newport-Mesa is lucky to have the journalists of the Daily Pilot
putting the paper together every day. They -- Bryce Alderton, Gina
Alexander, Lori Anderson, Deepa Bharath, S.J. Cahn, Roger Carlson,
Christine Carrillo, June Casagrande, Paul Clinton, Dodero, Rich Dunn,
Barry Faulkner, Kerry Flynn, Lolita Harper, Sean Hiller, Don Leach,
Steve McCrank, James Meier, Deirdre Newman, Paul Saitowitz, Jose
Santos, Daniel Stevens, Kent Treptow and Steve Virgin -- care about
what they do and about this community. And I’ve been lucky to work
with them.
But it’s time to say goodbye -- or at least, “Until we meet
again.” My leaving is a life decision that I hope will allow me to
explore other horizons, some literary and some to do with family.
As I’ve said often to Tony, I love my job. And I’m going while it
still is warm in my heart, before the pressures of other goals and
missed paths cool my ardor.
It’s a time for new beginnings, and so I say, fare thee well.
Wherever your path leads in this New Year, I hope it brings
contentedness. The only thing constant in life is change.
* JENNIFER K MAHAL is former features editor of the Daily Pilot
as of today. She may be reached at jennikmahal@yahoo.com.
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