August 8, 2001

Column
By Rochelle Beckstine
The Jackson Herald
August 8, 2001

So long, dear friends
Five weeks ago, I submitted my resignation as a reporter for MainStreet Newspapers effective August 10 and accepted a clerical/retail job with a local company that installs prefab fireplaces and sells anything involved with the heating aspect of homes.
The best part about my new job is it will allow me to keep my daughter with me all day long. There won't be a sitter that will coax her into taking her first steps while I put pages together a few miles away. I won't have to listen to a tape recording of her first words after my seven o'clock meeting is over. There have been days when the only time I see my daughter is to feed her. It's not good for my sanity. I felt guilty for every minute I wasn't taking care of her and for every time I imagined she cried for me and I wasn't there to pick her up.
My new boss has a reason for allowing me to tote my little papoose with me to Buford and to Commerce five days a week. He's my grandfather. He wants me to be happy and he wants Piper to be happy. When he offered me the job five and a half weeks ago, I didn't have to think for very long. I told him I would take it. I was euphoric. I wouldn't have to leave my baby with strangers or wonder what she was doing all day long while I typed up church news or laid out the social pages. I would be the one watching her giggle at the new skill she mastered. She would spit peas out on my clean shirt.
It was a wonderful hour of blissful musings. Then, I thought about everything I would be giving up. Number one, I wouldn't be using my college degree. My $96,000 college degree. (So what if I was on scholarship, that's what I would have had to pay.) Number two, my friends. Friends mean a lot to me because I don't have that many. I have made more friends in my year at MainStreet than I had ever made before in my life. I now have friends at the Jefferson office, at the Homer office, at the Commerce office and at the Danielsville office. I have friends at the Jackson County Humane Society, in the school systems at Banks County, Jackson County and Jefferson City, at city councils in Homer, Pendergrass, Talmo, Braselton and Hoschton, and at the Jackson County Airport Authority.
But the friends I will miss the most are the ones who let me into their homes every week. Who took the time out of their hectic day to read what I wrote. I hope I've brightened a few days and inspired some to think about issues in a different way. I won't say good-bye, because maybe someday I'll be occupying the same space. But I will say so long, dear friends, until another day.

Rochelle Beckstine is a reporter for MainStreet Newspapers.

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