Column
Eleven years seems like a blink in time, while also feeling incredibly long. That’s what I was thinking this week as I prepared to make one last newspaper. You see, dear reader, Friday, August 7, is my last day at The Messenger.
I first started my career in community journalism at The Messenger in May of 2015 as an intern. I was newly 19 years old, full of ideas and had no clue what I was doing. It feels like it was a lifetime ago. Since then, I have completed three college degrees, moved to a few different places, worked at a handful of community-based newspapers, lost loved ones, gained friends, gotten married and watched an eclipse.
A lot can happen in 11 years. My career would be going into middle school about now, if it was a child. (Now that I have said that, maybe it is best to leave before going through the awkward middle school phase again.) I love the career I am leaving. I have loved meeting different leaders in the community and everyday people. I have loved learning about different businesses, non-profits and events. I have loved being part of wins and losses, big and small. I have loved witnessing communities come together to help one another after natural disasters and during COVID-19.
I have never been a social butterfly. I remember making every phone call in the parking lot of our Broad Street office for my entire first year on the job. I was afraid of my own voice back then, and even more afraid of someone else in the office hearing me stumble through rehearsed interview questions. Journalism gave me an opportunity to talk to so many people on a daily basis that the shyness was quickly replaced with quiet confidence.
I was not the writer I am today way back in May of 2015. Far from it. My first editor, Chris McCarthy, was quick to point out the flaws in my writing, but also quick to offer suggestions for fixing my mistakes. My other mentors were writers that did not know I existed. I would chew through newspaper articles from neighboring cities, as well as statewide writers, daily. I was looking for ways to improve my craft. This was before ChatGPT came along, ruined the em dash and allowed everyone to feel like a news reporter.
Nearly five years into my journalism career I met my next great mentors, Anthony Cook and Ben Cunningham of The Anniston Star. These two taught me more in a matter of months than I had learned in classes over the course of four years. I learned how to be a leader in the industry by watching them. I studied how they spoke to reporters and to sources. I learned new lingo and techniques. I learned what it meant to be a journalist by watching so many talented journalists in that newsroom. I also learned the toll that being a daily reporter can take on you. Especially during the middle of a pandemic and presidential elections.
I returned to The Messenger in May of 2023. I told many people when I returned to the paper that it felt like coming back home. It was the same, yet, somehow, it wasn’t. We were in a different office building and I had a different title. But, the feelings were the same. When you report in the community you live in, you can become very emotionally attached to small things happening around you. Plus, you sometimes learn about big things happening before anyone else does. You also feel an even stronger need to get everything perfectly right 100 percent of the time. That’s the goal always, but being in the community makes the goal feel even more necessary.
My first years at The Messenger gave me the interest and the passion for community news. My time at The Anniston Star gave me the strength and the confidence to be a voice for those who are voiceless. The last few years at The Messenger have given me a renewed sense of responsibility to the people around me. I have sat through thousands of board meetings, council meetings and public hearings just so people in the community know what their leaders are doing. I have thoroughly enjoyed being the fly on the wall and the eyes and ears in a room. I never thought I would leave this career field — but I am.
In May, I graduated from Troy University with a Master of Public Administration degree. The goal is to get involved in non-profit, policy or advocacy work so I can still be part of the community. I have always had a servant’s mindset. I’ve been told numerous times that I am too sensitive and too empathetic for my own good. I feel a strong desire to help communities grow and improve. Though the roles will be different — it is what I’ve done for the past 11 years. I’m ready for a change.
I have gone through many emotions about this decision. Leaving the comfort of what I know is hard. Change is uncomfortable, but it should be. Discomfort is proof that you are doing something outside the normal structure of your life. The decision to change careers was something I agonized about for many months.
My amazing husband was by my side offering reassurance and cheering me on as I took the first steps toward a new career. He was there when I received my acceptance letter to a graduate program in December of 2024 and he was there a few weeks ago to watch me open my degree in the middle of our kitchen. He was the snack and water supplier during study sessions that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. He was, and still is, one of my biggest supporters.
I’ve been working behind the scenes at The Messenger to pass my knowledge along and to train those who will replace me. I can say — with no hesitation at all — that the staff at The Messenger will not miss a beat once I am gone. Teri Chupp, our legals editor and overall office mother, has kept The Messenger going for years. She keeps us organized, on time, fed, loved, etc. She carried us through our sports coverage last year and never stops working. Lindsey Frazier, my direct replacement, has been a staple in our office for a few years now. She started as an intern, just like I did. She is a fantastic writer and has the ability to make everyone around her comfortable. She isn’t afraid to chase a good story and she can talk to anyone. Karla McArthur, the most recent edition to our staff, is a retired educator and a very talented writer. She tells it how it is and she knows just about everyone who walks into our office. I have loved every minute of working with these incredible women.
And you, dear reader, I have loved writing stories for you — even the ones no one reads. I have been just one single piece of a complex machine. I have loved it so much. Thank you for supporting The Messenger, and in turn, supporting the work that I did that meant so much to me.
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