Well ... now what?

It's hard knowing what to think, what to feel … how to be.

This has been (so far) a summer of intense change, a time of uncertainty perhaps, perhaps a well-deserved break after seven years of what … almost beginning a career?

And now, here I sit, just your average, unemployed newspaper editor going out of my mind because I'm suddenly without a newspaper.

April 29, 2015 – the first day of the rest of my life. My job was laid off in a cost-saving maneuver. These days I glance at the newspaper on newsstands, disgusted with the shoddy layout, chafed by the interruption of so much community outreach cut short for reasons beyond my ken. The only thing I managed to grab on my way out of the office were a few personal items and a stack of reader feedback slips – the majority of which say their favorite thing about the newspaper was my column, “Petzold's Perspective,” and the negatives being “not anything I can think of right now.”

Shoeless Joe said getting kicked out of baseball was like having part of his body amputated … for me I think it was the other way around. The newspaper itself underwent the surgery, this time replacing a heart full of love for the job and the readership with an artificial replacement generic blood-pumper that just wants to go home on time whether the paper sucks or not. I felt like a vital part of the body that had been amputated, left to watch the body founder without me.

After amassing a slew of community collaborators with high hopes for future endeavors to promote worthwhile causes, now I apply for two jobs a week to earn my unemployment income and do odds and ends to make cash on the side.

The good work continues – my help is still sought to promote my community and bring arts and entertainment to the neighbors I love. My work as a church organist continues unimpeded by the betrayal of the corporate world. Other people are angry on my behalf … I just feel thankful I had the chance to try – and I did it all without pressing my lips to the backside of some corporate stooge.

And, on the plus side, my dog Ted and I have a lot more time for walks. We have had a great summer so far, and we remain confident that the next step will reveal itself in due time.