Two months later

Two months ago, I was let go from my job at The Waldron News.

I never have figured out the exact reason for my firing: I was informed that it "just wasn't working out." Personally, I think that an advertiser or someone with a lot of weight to throw around took great offense to a column I wrote that referred to our county's refusal to sell alcohol "the stupidest thing in the world." My reasoning? People go to Fort Smith and Oklahoma to buy alcohol, and we're losing valuable tax dollars as a result.

Whatever the reason, telling me that it "just wasn't working out" is an odd reason indeed. I felt I had made that newspaper great, through good reporting, great action photographs (instead of the grip-and-grin photos that usually dominate small-town newspapers), and a layout that made one person say they thought they were living in the big city with a great newspaper.

Unfortunately, I was unable to continue giving our readers a quality newspaper, so in the meantime, I've been substitute teaching, which has been a lot more fun than covering quorum court meetings.

I'm not sure what I want to do now: teaching history and yearbook sounds like a great option (journalism perhaps, but I want future journalists go directly into the field with their skills instead of spending four years in a classroom), but at the same time, I really want to do something that allows me to use my greatest skill, graphic design, full-time.

Right now, it's pretty much whoever can give me a well-paying job that will dictate my future.

In closing for now, I want to thank everyone once again for their prayers and support after my firing. I know God has a plan for me that involves greater things than a journalist at a weekly newspaper.

God bless you all, and I swear I'll update this site more often.