At some point last night as our party effortlessly transitioned between two pubs and a Chinese restaurant I'll not forget stopping to scan the room and take a mental photograph of the 20 or so happy faces (beer and finger food, what else do you need?) which were my AFR colleagues. The thought flashed through my mind that there's something remarkable about the Fin where you work with seasoned journos who've been around for some 20 years, constantly refining the craft that is newspaper journalism. It's a culture that's inclusive of young, aspiring journos who are keen to learn from the best in the business.
Around ten years ago when I started out as a technology journalist, this role that I'm leaving behind today was my secret ambition. It was an outrageous idea, in my post-University mind, that perhaps one day I could work at the AFR writing about technology. As you know, my next outrageous idea is that perhaps one day in the future (think more than 5 years) I could possibly become a pastor, or apply what I'm learning at Tabor College in some other meaningful way.
So when people ask how does it feel to leave the AFR, it usually takes a little while to answer the question. The first part of the answer is that I'm leaving my role as IT Editor, but not journalism. I've been offered tonnes of freelance work here, so in a sense I'm not really leaving, just changing. What I'm trying to process is how it came to pass that I can simultaneously pursue two passions at once, and it all just works. In short, it's all good.
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