Not that I want to beat a dead horse or anything here but…
Four years ago, at the time I am scheduling this post to go live, I was being given the news that my “position was being cut” at the local daily newspaper.
Seven years, six awards, and rarely a day off meant nothing at that point. Here’s your severance and best of luck.
It was a tough day, that’s for sure.
I’m not here to rehash everything from that day, but it is one that shaped me quite a bit. I went through a long bout (about 2 1/2 years) of unemployment. I questioned a lot of things. But one thing I am quite sure of – I am a better person in the long run. I started to see the good in a lot of things and I became a lot calmer in life.
And in the end, I landed on my feet at a place that appreciates what I do (I think!) and where I feel like my work actually matters. In the newspaper industry, that’s not always true – especially now. The reporters and such usually care about the stories and the readers, but as you go up the line … it’s more about counting those beans, which is why newspapers are on the endangered species list.
Anyway, I feel strongly that I should look back to this day each year. It helps me appreciate where I’ve been, where I’m going, and the road I had to take to get from one to another.
If you are up to reading a little about this saga, here are a few of the highlights from the blog:
- When it happened
- He gone
- The end
- A year after the end (has other links to this saga, too)
In the end, I made out OK. It still doesn’t take away what I went through for all that time and, truthfully, I’m still digging myself out of several holes made during that time. But I’m smiling now. I’m happy. And that part of my life is way behind me in the rear view mirror. And all the while, I smile. Because in he end, I know I am way better off than if I stayed there, and I also know I landed because of me, not because of somebody giving me “a push.”
Happy is key and happy I am, and in no part in thanks to people who made this decision years ago. In the end, I get the final laugh and know I am now in a good place.
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