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Mar 23, 2004 "How's your new promotion?" My reporter-friend asked me over the phone, from her newsdesk high up on a top floor. "I think it's okay," I said, while I watched my co-workers in my new newsroom watching me." "You think I could get a promotion too, somehow?" she teased me. She is our newspaper's entertainment reporter and she sat behind me in the newsroom, before my promotion. ...when I was just a reporter doing crime articles and features. We had become close bonded friends from discovering one day that we were both secretly crying, hidden in the back of the newsroom library...quietly hiding from whichever editor had blown his stack at the last second before deadline. We heard the City Desk Editor open the door and say, "No, they're not in here...Where are they?" And we suddenly started laughing instead of crying, as we both realized we were each were hiding from the same editor's ill temper. Today, however, I am overlooking the newroom. I was blindsited by a promotion. "I don't know if I ever wanted a promotion," I whispered into the phone to my friend. "I LIKE going to city hall...going to the police stations..." "Listen, no one gets a big promotion without even asking. Be happy you were asked. And be proud you had the guts to say yes, even though it was not what you'd ever thought of....You took the risk and listen, you look so much more serene now," she said. "Serene. Yeah. And you're not the first person who has told me I look different since the promotion," I said. One month ago, I received an email posing a question...asking IF I were asked to be Managing Editor of the newspaper would say yes, or no. I didn't say yes or no. I was too busy. I was working fast, right at deadline, when the email question popped up on my screen. I tapped in an answer saying I was too busy to give a clear- headed answer, so would like to answer another time. Later, I was told, it was a shocking answer, as most anyone would have jumped at the chance. Well, I put off that email two more times...then realized..."Hey, wait a minute...jump in pay...management...more decisions about the paper....experience...why would I say no?" With that came two interviews and poof, I was an editor. All the while I wondered though..."Do I really want to do this?" Now I keep hearing I appear more serene, laid back, relaxed than when I was a reporter......but you know what? I liked it all. I miss having a thousand pens with me, a skinny reporter's notebook, a map, press passes....And I miss the craziness of reporting. Okay, okay, I'm an editor whimp, I mean after all, it's only been two weeks, how much can I miss it? I still write...but it's much less and one thing I learned..don't let the editors fool ya...a reporter's job is harder. At least in the Metropolitan area...city stuff....mayors...councilmembers..boards of education...homicide...it's all harder than this. And I don't want to fix mistakes. I want to be able to hand in my work and know the copy editor is going to get in huge trouble if he doesn't catch my mistakes. That's fine with me. Unfair, I've always thought. But now all mistakes are ultimately my responsibility. I feel like I traded responsibility for fun." "Yeah, well just enjoy it," my reporter-friend said to me. "You can chat on the phone...I have to finish my Sopranos article. Deadline...catch ya later." She's stressed. I can hear it. I'm not stressed, I can feel it. How can I miss stress? But I do miss the adrenaline rush. I miss the adventure, the crazy car and train and subway rides. The meetings, the comments, I even miss the word 'reporter.' I want the "R" word, not the "E" word. Oh, wait, I see a reporter right now, popping Tums into his mouth. Maybe I will see how this serenity thing turns out. I can always go back to being a reporter. One thing I do know: this job is a guy-magnet. Tell ya more about it tomorrow. ------------ About the author: Chrissa Falcon is a newspaper reporter in the New York Metropolitan Area. Chrissa may be reached at ChrisFalconColumn@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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