Back in the fray
To be honest with you, the interview at Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly did not go well (see my Glimmer of Hope posting). I was late; couldn’t find a place to park; and off my game the entire interview. I’d be beyond shocked if I got hired there. I’ve never done very well on the interviews that last only 45-60 minutes (as opposed to the one- or two-day interview), but this was just bad.
But, by the grace of God and my own indecisive mind, I’m getting back into journalism full-time. This Monday I will start a six-month temp position with the Patriot-Ledger out of Quincy, which is just south of Boston. Now, I’m eternally grateful to the good folks at the Ledger for offering what feels like one of only a half dozen open journalism jobs in all of Massachusetts, but this is not my ideal return to journalism. It’s the 12-8 Sunday thru Thrusday shift (read: lackey), which means I’m starting below what I was doing when I first got out of college for the Sandusky Register. Also, the pay is terrible; as in so terrible I can make more money working at McDonalds; not as a McDonalds manager, but as the regular dude who cooks fries and slathers special sauce on Big Macs. This means, that I still have to keep one of my waitering jobs just to make ends meet for my young family (yea! working six and a half days per week!) It also means I’ll have to do the type of stories I couldn’t stand when I was with Sandusky Register and Naples Daily News, like doing a write up on the best fishing spot in Southern Massachusetts. My wife and I moved our family to Massachusetts so I could spend more time at home and write the stories I was passionate about; instead I’ll be gone all the time (it’s a one hour commute each way) and write what I’m told to write.
But, you know what? I’m glad to be taking this job. Sure, the hours are terrible and the money is worse, but when I’m back in the groove of doing journalism and writing full-time, I won’t worry about any of that. I want to freelance from home and I want to be my own boss, but that just not possible right now. Instead, I’ll take what I can get, and this is what I can get right now.
On this blog, I haven’t done a very good job of chronicling our life since I switched from freelancing full-time to working as a waiter. Now, I’m grateful to the folks at Picadilly Pub for helping me out of a tight financial situation when I needed it, but I couldn’t stand that place. The worst part every day for me was the shift board. In the kitchen (by the dishwasher and the ice machine), there’s a bulletin board where servers list all the shifts they need picked up for vacations, birthdays, weekend trips, whatever. When I first started in April, I hesitated to pick up anyone’s shifts because I always reasoned with myself that there was no way I’d still be working at Picadilly Pub in late May or June or July. Yet, the weeks would keep rolling by, and I’d grow more and more discontent that I was at that job longer than I thought I should have been.
The day of Enlightenment for me came about two weeks ago when I was still mulling over taking the job at the Patriot-Ledger because the pay and the hours were so bad. It was a Tuesday, and it was slow (as it always is at the Picadilly Pub) and I was roaming between groups of servers who were chewing the fat to take up the time. All the conversations were just so whiny and awful and unbearable that I had to go sit by myself in a corner. I ended up in front of the shift board, saw all those dates that I never signed up for two months ago, saw all those dates that were coming up two months in the future, and decided I needed to do something different. Then and there, I decided to take the job at the Ledger. If I stick with journalism, chances are something with come of it; if I stick with waitering, in 10 years I’ll still be making the same rate, hoping for 20 percent tip and having whiny, awful, unbearable conversations with other waiters. The choice was clear. The best few seconds I’ve ever had at the Picadilly Pub where when I gave my notice to my boss, we exchanged mutual appreciation for each other, he wished me luck in my new position, and I walked away. It felt great.
Patience is a virtue; and it is a virtue that is very important in life. It’s also a virtue that I’ve never had. I was ready to leave the Sandusky Register after six months and reached my breaking point after two years. With the Naples Daily News, I was ready to out and out quit journalism just to get away from the place after three years. Yet, with a little patience, things might have turned out differently. My boss at the Sandusky Register was ready to promote me to city editor after just two years at the paper, a position which was one small step from leading the entire newsroom, and still I left. At the Naples Daily News, my boss — the enigmatic Tom Hanson — wrote in my last evaluation that I could be a great newsman if I just had the patience to wait out a promotion. I was close to being a section editor after less than three years at that job and would have been promoted soon enough had a waited around. Hell, I might have had a chance at being managing editor within 10-15 years, which would have been significant considering I would have been less than 40 years old when I got the job. Unfortunately, my complete lack of patience took me away from all of that.
I still consider my moves away from Sandusky and Naples to be good things. Regardless of what I should have learned, I still believe I made the right decision at the time. Moving forward, though, I wonder if I shouldn’t take a different approach to this Patriot-Ledger job. Maybe starting at the bottom, again, and proving myself over a longer period of time will reap greater rewards. Maybe I can lead the charge that will make journalism a great profession once again. Maybe it will crash and burn just.
Either way, I’m glad to be back in the fray.
