Keeping busy in Manti

I have two months before my mission. Looking for a temporary job was never in my plan. But a couple weeks ago, an opportunity landed in my lap that was too good to pass up.

I've always wanted to be part of a small-town newspaper staff. I guess I thought working on a small staff in a small town would be as close, professionally, as I could get to the old feeling of working on the UCAS Ascent, my high school newspaper. The Ascent is where I really caught the journalism bug. I loved watching the staff come together and create something tangible. I loved being involved in every step of the creative process. I loved that the all the members of the staff were friends. Man, we had some good times.

The Sanpete Messenger has turned out to be sort of like that, but with a constant cloud of stress and busyness hanging over us that comes from having too many things we want to cover and too few hands to do it. Counting me, we have four regular writers. Sanpete County has 13 cities and two school districts.

I'll only be here for a month, and although I like Manti well enough, I find myself counting down the days. The first paper I helped put out gets delivered tomorrow, and I can't wait. Getting published is really one of the biggest things that draws me to this job, and to boot, one of my stories will be on the front page!

I like my coworkers. I especially look up to the grumpiest and most inappropriately humorous one of the lot- John. He's a drama king, has a colorful vocabulary, and drinks too much coffee, but he's never unkind, has a quick wit and is a darn good reporter. I don't think anything scares him.

The other writer, Bryon, is also the managing editor. He's a much softer kind of nice and less loud than John.

Terri, our receptionist/advertising biller, is like a female version of John. She's very entertaining, to say the least. Nikki, who keeps the phone book updated, is typically pretty quiet, but has a dry humor that plays well with John and Terri. Out of everyone, I'm probably best friends with her. Alison is an intern from Snow College who's very quiet and keeps to herself. I'm not sure what she does- I think she might work with Terri.

Suzanne, the publisher/reporter/advertising seller, is talkative, easily distracted, very quality-driven, generous and thoughtful. She's letting me stay in one of her townhouses for free, and has been giving me rides to and from work.

Yesterday was what John calls Newspaper Day, when all four writers (John, Bryon, me and Suzanne) work writing, editing and laying out the paper. I started work at 9, took a two-hour break at 5 and then helped out in the office until 10:30. It was the first time I saw the amazing view Manti has of the stars. I was TIRED, though. On the way home that night, Suzanne told me stories about staying in the office as late as 3 am- and then getting up at 7 the next day! Thank heaven Monday only comes around once a week.