About two and a half years ago, I switched careers. I left the journalism industry after 15+ years to go work in PR and marketing for a hospital.

Lots of newsies like to call this type of career move “going to the dark side.” Even when I was a full-time journalist, I never cared for that expression — it just sounds so sanctimonious. Because the truth is, while journalism is an important job and plays such a vital role in our democracy, it’s not a great industry to work in.

I certainly don’t miss the financial struggles. When I left the newspaper business in 2014 to work in digital news for a TV station, I was making $34,000/year. No one goes into journalism to get rich, but that salary was not sustainable, especially where the cost of living is high, as it is in central Maryland. I wasn’t married at the time, so that made things even more difficult.

I got a significant raise at this next job and was finally able to crack $50,000/year — still not a ton of money for this area, but at least it was a living wage! However, that job came with long hours on top of a long commute, and after a while it became clear that my role at the station was more about getting page views and clicks than it was about doing good journalism that I could be proud of. The burnout was insane and I was so grateful that I found a new opportunity when I did.

Now, for the first time in my life, I make a comfortable salary AND I work normal hours. And my commute is 15 minutes. Sometimes I still can’t believe it.

But while I still do some writing in my new career, it’s not my focus, and I do miss it. I miss meeting new people and talking to them and telling their stories. Not only did I love doing that, but I like to think I’m pretty good at it.

So last winter, I reached out to the editor of RunWashington Magazine and asked if he needed any more freelancers. It seemed like the perfect fit — I’m obviously very passionate about running, I have a background in journalism and I love writing feature stories. (I covered just about everything in my years as a journalist, but my dream was really to be a features writer. I will say I don’t miss covering politics one bit!)

This year, I’ve gotten to write several fun stories for the magazine, including a profile of a woman who ran more than 50 marathons last year to honor fallen soldiers and a story about how race T-shirts are designed. And now, my bio is live on the site!

You can see the rest of my work here.

And, as a side note, I am always interested in new freelance opportunities, so please feel free to reach out if you’d like to work with me!