the pool

Finally, at last, it's happened . . .

the offer of paying work.

My two months of interning at a national newspaper, my two years of journalism school, my twenty-something years of prepress production -- and now I can say I'm a copy editor.

Finally. And at the same national newspaper I've been interning at. They hire their copy editors by the day, and pay by the day (which is -- perhaps? -- another reason why newspapers say they always need copy editors). And I'm at the bottom of a pool of 20, but god, it feels good.

Finally, to be doing what I've wanted to do for years -- and what I could have done years ago, without the benefit of j-school. J-school has been a plus, and I wouldn't have been in the internship except for j-school, but all the skills I've used for this job I had beforehand. Sorry to say, but true. If I was reporting, I would give j-school credit, and if I was writing freelance, I would give j-school credit, but for the copy editing and pagination, I had 99% of that going in.

Finally, even if it's only one day a week, I'll have some money coming in, instead of going out. That has been a situation, since January (actually since school began three years ago), that was getting very tired (not to mention worrisome). Finally, finally.

Allelujah!

Diving in on August 3rd.