A tear-stained thank you and goodbye

What are you supposed to say when you are expected to say goodbye to something you very much wish to hold onto?

Jennifer K. Perkins

This is the very conundrum I am facing as I must say goodbye to this community as I embark on my next adventure. 

For almost a year and a half, I have been blessed and honored to tell the stories of this community. 

I have had opportunities to write joyful stories about businesses opening or about someone’s hobby turned life pursuit, but this career has also forced me to write the hard stories like those of murder or fire. 

Like my university graduation cap, I never got to wear because of COVID, that read, “History will be kind to her for she intends to write it.” 

Having degrees in both journalism and history, the duplicity of the meaning was not lost on me. 

As I look at the stories this newspaper has given me the opportunity to publish, I cannot help but hope that because I wrote those stories, history will be kind to the subjects. Even the ones convicted of murder, I hope that history will look at the person, like the father of the victim, and say, “I have to forgive you, and I have to love you.” 

I didn’t want this to be a column filled with emotion, but I can’t help it. 

You must understand, this column is not just my goodbye to the community. For me, as emotional and probably crazy as it sounds, it is a goodbye to being a print journalist for a time. 

After pursuing other endeavors right after college, it only took me four months to find my way back to a newspaper. 

It is where I feel at home, and where I feel that I can fulfill my purpose. 

But for those Christians like myself, you know that the Lord often leads His children down paths they never thought they would walk.

A couple months ago, I was approached by several media outlets with opportunities to advance my career. 

After much prayer and thought, I have chosen to pursue one of those paths. 

It was not so much a career change that I wanted, but I truly feel it is an anointed opportunity that I must see through. 

For more than 40 days, I prayed for discernment about what I should do, but it wasn’t until the date of my final deadline, that I received the confirmation I was seeking. 

In the end, I was able to make a list of the twelve impossible things that should have never aligned for this opportunity to come to fruition, but they did. 

This coming opportunity is just another testimony to God’s faithfulness in my life.

He placed me here at the News Journal so that I would learn, grow and establish the relationships that would help and equip me to write the next chapter of my life’s story. 

I have faith that the new placement, though scary, is where I am meant to be. 

Thank you to those who have helped me along the way. The sources that have turned into friends and mentors hold a very special place in my heart. 

Thank you to the community members who have willingly, and sometimes not so willingly, allowed me to share your stories. 

Most of all, thank you to the wonderful staff of the News Journal. I started at your office as a mere intern full of hopes and philosophical ideas of changing the world. 

Since my time learning from you as an intern did not lead me to become a ‘pessimistic’ and ‘jaded’ human, I decided to return to give you all one more shot. 

Alas, after a year and a half, you all failed again because you showed me more love, hope, and optimism than I could ever imagine. 

Melissa, Dean, Mark, Jennifer, Linda and Don, you all will be the hardest goodbye. 

I can never say thank you enough. 

Wasn’t it Winnie the Pooh who said, “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?”

It is with tear stained cheeks that I get to say one more time – thank you and goodbye.