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Admittedly, that is a philosophical cliché, but it’s also quite literal for my future. New Year’s Eve will be my last day at the newspaper I’ve worked at for the past 25 years.

I’ve seen a lot. Covered a lot. Done a lot. I’ve written the routine stories on city and county budgets, reported on local elections, moderated local debates and the televised 2018 Republican and Democratic primary debates for Ohio governor. Then there was my 2015 trip to Washington, D.C., at the invitation of then-Speaker of the House John Boehner. I watched the State of the Union (unfortunately from a conference room in his office, but I was in the Capitol), and interviewed him the next day.

Twenty-five years, however, is almost half my life. That’s thousands of stories in thousands of newspaper editions. It’s been my identity for a generation, and now, I get to do something different. I could get to experience new firsts.

Near the end of last year, my company offered voluntary buyouts. Technically, it was a retirement option, but I’m too young to actually collect on any of my retirement benefits (except for my severance). The decision was hard, with about two weeks of sleepless nights and the occasional panic attack, but peace came when I made the decision.

As of submitting this story for publication, I’ll have 70-something days remaining before I transition into something new. The anxiety is likely to return when fall turns to winter, and if my something new isn’t another journalism job, my 25-year journalism career will end.

Before I came to my decision, the thought of me losing my identity scared me. Reflection and hindsight have fortunately provided clarity and a couple lessons learned. One, the job should not and does not define me. As Popeye often sang (look it up), “I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam.” A second lesson is change is inevitable. Yes, that’s another cliché, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

This transition may be new, it’s not foreign. Life is full of change. For me, there has been plenty. Joining the Army Reserve out of high school, transferring to the then-College of Mount St. Joseph from the University of Cincinnati to wrestle, and then blowing my knee, thus ending that part of my life. Graduating from the Mount, and a decade later from Xavier University with a master’s degree.

Then marriage. Kids. Losing my parents and my wife’s father.

All of it was hard, but survivable. 

So, what’s next? Anything. Everything.

Writing will still be a major part of my life (when my book comes out, I hope you’ll buy it). I know I won’t be alone in this shift in my life. My oldest daughter, Emma, will graduate from Xavier University in December, a semester early. She’ll be on her own transitional journey with me. My youngest, Sophia, is in the midst of her latest transition, which is more like a metamorphosis: high school. She has had her struggles thus far, and high school is a gauntlet for many. Though I know Sophia will have more struggles, she’ll emerge stronger. I’m sure of it.

We’re all faced with the question as kids, “What you do want to be when you grow up?” Sophia will, hopefully, be able to answer that question with a little more certainty and clarity in the next few years. As for me, I get to answer a variation of that question: “What do you want to do next?”

Whatever my next is, I’ll embrace it. Enjoy it. Maybe I’ll even find a new identity. Or maybe I’m just who I’ve always been. Me.

Pictured is then-Speaker of the House John Boehner before an exclusive interview with the Journal-News and Dayton Daily News (both owned by Cox Ohio Publishing at the time) in February 2014 at The Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton. MSJ alum Michael D. Pitman is to the right of the former speaker (center). Also pictured is then-Dayton Daily News politics editor Anthony Shoemaker. PHOTO BY NICK DAGGY