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.