Is there a second chapter ahead?

I recently had the chance to speak at West Boylston Middle-High School's career day. While I admit my talk was a bit dry and focused a lot on an industry that is changing and disappearing, the day got me thinking.

Before the session, I spoke to a man with a plastic spine by his side. He is currently a chiropractor, but used to be an engineer, which I noted seemed to be another kind of engineering.

Changing careers is not something I thought about much when I was younger. My father always stressed the need to have a steady employment history. He was a dentist, but didn't have his own practice. When he married my mother, he joined a Worcester dental practice for the steady paycheck. He worked there until he became too ill (I was in my late 20s, so it was about 27 years). He might have been able to make more money opening his own practice, but he was content to bring home a steady paycheck that he could depend upon.

I chose writing as my career in sixth grade after writing a perfectly horrible story about Vikings. But I caught the writing bug and had to find a way to make a living. In high school, I was lucky enough to be in the internship program for two years, so I got to try three different careers: Newspapers, radio and public relations.

I was not cut out for a career in public relations. I did OK with it, and have done some freelance public relations over the years, but it lacked some of the reality I sought in my writing. As for radio, I stuck with news broadcasting for the entire school year, but only because the community radio station needed a female on the air and begged me to stay. I still tell people I have a voice for newspapers.

My newspaper internship got me a job after college graduation, and I stayed there for four years. I then joined The Item's sister paper, The Banner, and stayed with the company for over nine years. After a four-year absence, during which time I wrote and edited for newspapers as a freelancer, I returned to The Item and have been here 19 years.

But throughout the years, I have never strayed from my career path, even as my career path has taken some bizarre twists and turns with the changing industry.

Maybe it is my father's voice in my head, telling me to settle in to a job and show my commitment (and getting a steady paycheck). Or maybe newspapers are just in my blood. I always tell people I will likely be working at my Item desk until I draw my last breath.

The idea of a second chapter sounds intriguing. I wonder how many of those high school students may have multiple chapters ahead of them. How exciting to be at the beginning, looking at a book with blank pages.

I was taught, trained, conditioned to stay with one chapter, and I know that newspapers will be in my life - and blood - for quite a while. But the idea of having that second chapter, and having the next door open, is exciting and I envy those students for the journey they are embarking on.

Life is too short not to be always looking ahead.

Jan Gottesman is editor of The Item. She can be reached at clintonitem@yahoo.com.