Mark Lawrence commentary | Hello, from the other side (of the page)
What do you want to do with the rest of your life?
In the days and weeks after getting laid off, family, friends and peers asked that question repeatedly.
And, for the first time in 25 years, I didn't have an answer.
I knew one thing in those dark days of early 2009: I was done with newspapers. Every week brought more bad news to the industry and more reason to doubt there would be much of an industry left for me to go back to, let alone make it to retirement.
But after 25 years as a reporter, writer, editor and manager for six daily papers, what was the natural transition?
So I sat in my home office at 2 a.m., illuminated by the glow of the computer screen, combing through jobs listings. Sports information jobs? Check. Media relations jobs? Check. Public relations jobs? Check. Non-profit management? Check. Teaching? Check.
I took freelance writing or editing jobs for print and digital companies to pay the mortgage. I went back to the classroom, learning software programs and basic coding to try to bridge my generation's skills gap.
I worked on my golf game and tended my garden.
And I decompressed, letting the decades of accumulated deadline pressure and workplace stress dissipate. Friends and peers remarked they had never seen me so relaxed. They were right.
Yet another reason to never go back.
The months passed with nary a nibble. Changing careers is tough enough in a good economy, but amid the Great Recession ...
Then something unexpected happened. While I was busy escaping print journalism, I began to miss it.
I missed the adrenaline rush of a daily deadline. I missed seeing the results of our labor as it rolled off the presses or in the online
response. I missed telling people's stories, or helping others tell those stories better. I missed having places to channel ideas. And I missed engaging with readers.
I really knew my escape plans were in trouble when I started missing readers' complaints, too.
One day, more than a year after being laid off, I tentatively answered a newspaper help wanted ad. A few months later, a former coworker posted a help-wanted ad in Port Charlotte. I called, more out of curiosity than interest. One conversation led to another. And, finally, an offer.
I hesitated.
Did I really want to do this? Was this a career trap? Did I really want to return to Florida, so far from family and friends?
In the end, I jumped. I ended up back where I started: small-town, community journalism. I spent the past five years a few exits down Interstate 75.
Now that highway brings me to you.
And, as this new chapter opens, I wonder who you are. What stories you have to share. How you want us to share them.
I wonder in what direction this area's sports world will grow. What opportunities lie ahead. What setbacks await.
And some of you may wonder who I am. What I value. How I intend to shape the sports content you look to us for every day.
To that end, I plan to come to you, from time to time, in this space to share a story, explain a decision or answer a question. I hope we'll also find ways to engage each other online. Yes, my email address and Twitter address appear with this column. And my phone number appears each day in the paper. But, in this digital age, the opportunities exist for much more.
And, if one of your questions happens to be, "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?" I have an answer: Exactly what I spent the first 30 years of my career doing.
Mark Lawrence, Herald sports editor, can be reached at 941-745-7052 and by email at mlawrence@bradenton.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradentonse.
This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Mark Lawrence commentary | Hello, from the other side (of the page) ."