Hello Michelle,

I recently read your "Best of Both Worlds" [ED+C, August 2007] editorial, and wanted to introduce myself to you as I am new to WAGO Corporation, and I also wanted to share a bit about how working at a small newspaper in Utah impacted my personal life.

After a few years covering the features beat, I was assigned to write a features story about a man who, after nearly 20 solid years of alcohol abuse, "white-knuckled" his own detox. It was a harrowing story, complete with speaking to crying family members. After the story ran, I was in the newsroom and received a call from another young man with an "unavailable" phone number. He commented on the story and asked me for all the contact information for the drug and alcohol abuse specialist I quoted in the story. That's the inherent value of journalism — education, yeah, it was only one person who directly contacted me about the story seeking help/info, but how many lives would he impact? Personally, I think those rare moments are what made journalism so rewarding.

After working on the features desk and news desk, I was offered a segue into marketing research where I performed both qualitative and quantitative research for Fortune 500 companies in a wide variety of sectors such as consumer goods, transportation, healthcare, business-to-business apps and public utilities. There were the more "exciting" aspects of the job such as going shopping with complete strangers in the name of research, "cruising" in their cars and going into their homes to talk about coffee. Interestingly, I was fortunate to work on several pro-bono projects for non-profits. In marketing, I guess it's all to easy to lose touch with reality (as opposed to journalism), but these studies quickly ground you and remind you that you can never underestimate a person's situation. It was fascinating to, in essence, study the human psyche (even if it was for a corporation). Of course, this makes you hyper-analytical of your own day-to-day activities/thoughts.

Well, thanks again for the "Best of Both Worlds." Although my experiences in mass communications don't exactly parallel yours, the "loving what you do" part resonated with me. I guess, in some small way, I was fortunate (and still am) to write, which is such an internal process — sometimes you have to find ways to escape yourself! Looking forward to the next Editor's Note.

I hope you have a great weekend! Keep those editorials coming!

— Paul