Jan. 4, 2022:
Forty years ago Jan. 4, I walked into my first newsroom, excited about being a reporter, apprehensive, with no experience but more than my share of determination.
I didn’t know a thing about how a newsroom worked. I couldn’t even compose on a typewriter. I wrote my stories by hand, then typed them in, just like I’d done with my English papers in college.
I was shy. My writing was clear but nothing special. (She asks herself: how did she ever get a job?)
But being a reporter forced me to ask lots of questions, and reading fine writing eventually taught me better ways to approach assignments, find details and tell stories.
I knew in the first few months — after I’d interviewed farmers about a new brand of cattle and written about the city’s rescue of a duck tangled in a six-pack ring — that I had stumbled upon the world’s greatest job.
Forty years later and at my seventh newspaper, I still feel that way. But it’s time for someone else to take the wheel at The Island Packet in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where I’ve been senior editor for 2 1/2 years.
I gave notice a few weeks ago, and told my staff today, that I’m retiring Jan. 31.
I am so thankful for the friends and colleagues who have taught me, made me laugh and enriched my life, including the editors who hired me, pushed me, reined me in when my prose got ridiculous and offered new opportunities to grow. I wanted to list you all, but tagging 200 or so folks seemed to border on a chain letter or spam or something worse.
I’ll probably have more to say later about those memories and those good people, but I’m still processing, still figuring out what retirement looks like.
I know I will be seeing my family more than I have in recent years. I know John and Sammy and I are road-tripping to Washington state again, this time by way of the national parks we missed on the last trip.
Despite the dwindling use of the printing press, and the predicted demise of newspapers, I still have great faith in local journalism. I see my staff — most of them 25 or younger — interviewing experts and elected officials, studying town budgets, poring over planning documents, attending court hearings, listening to readers’ complaints and answering their questions. They are doing their level best to keep our community informed.
They are smart and passionate and give me hope for our future. Invest in them and those like them by buying a digital subscription to your local paper.