One of the ironic things I’ve experienced in this role is being more aware than ever of news, conversations and events happening in our community, but also personally feeling less connected to and engaged with those things than ever before.
Part of it is sheer busyness. I’m working on the paper and the business so much that I barely have time for the essentials of a personal and family life, let alone attending “optional” things out in the community. I find myself frequently wishing I could follow up on interesting stuff I would normally take the time to explore, but realizing I’ll have to let it go. (I just know even more now about what I’m missing!)
There’s also this weird blurring of information and details that comes from a kind of constant information overload. Every week I’m reading and editing thousands of words about government meetings, press releases, community events, celebrations and recognitions, and they all start to run together. I sometimes can’t immediately recall if a given story appeared in last week’s paper or if it was several months ago. I lose track of whether a given tidbit of information has been published, is currently being published, or is still off in the future of being published. My sense of time and my personal calendar is broken up by printing schedules and publication dates instead of seasons or weekends or holidays.
It makes it tough to feel zeroed in on important details, and easy to lose perspective.
I hope I’ll move past this state at some point soon. I like being a part of the community we cover, even if that’s inherently a different experience in the world of journalism.
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