After 34 years at the Sun-Times, I'm retiring — for real

By MARY MITCHELL

STARTING OVER

This is the last time I appear in the Chicago Sun-Times as a regular columnist.

After 34 years with this great newspaper, nearly 30 spent giving the voiceless a platform to air their grievances, it is time to say goodbye.

As we learned from President Joe Biden's gut-wrenching departure from a career he loved for a half-century, saying goodbye is not easy.

But, with your support, I've been able to get used to the idea of stepping out of the spotlight.

When I tell my friends I am fully retiring, the question that pops up is: "What are you going to do next?"

It's easy to answer that question with a grocery list of things, like spending time with grandkids or traveling to exotic places.

In my case, we're talking about great-grands since my grandkids are college-bound and young adults. As much as they love me, they aren't exactly looking forward to spending their leisure hours hanging out with Grandma.

Frankly, traveling halfway around the world to foreign shores doesn't appeal to me as much as it did when I was in my 50s and 60s.

Still, not having a deadline to meet or a project to finish is going to feel strange. After all, the only time that happened was when I gave birth or was recovering from surgery. I also retired in 2019 but returned full time to the paper the next year. In the future, I might write an occasional column.

As a retiree, I'm expected to fill my days pursuing activities that I didn't have time for when I was working full time and raising a family.

I am stepping into a role I've never played: a woman of leisure.

After a lifetime of deadlines, I looked forward to doing whatever, but I'm not sure what that "whatever" would be.

I'd like to be like my BFF. She retired a decade or so ago and is living a healthy, fulfilling life. Her advice was for me to spend time getting to know who I am and learning how to relax.

But a neighbor warned me that I'm retiring at the wrong time. She was referring to the excitement surrounding the coming presidential election that could send a woman of color to the White House.

I have to admit I got a twinge of regret during the hoopla of the Democratic National Convention.

But that twinge turns to excitement when I consider I can now exercise my right to support a particular candidate and, as former first lady Michelle Obama said, "do something."

The truth is, you'll know when you've lost that "fire in the belly," as Mayor Richard M. Daley once said. I felt it in my stomach.

Whenever I run into a young person who tells me that their grandparent used to make them read my column, I am grateful for the platform I was blessed to have for so many years.

But the work being done by a younger generation to address the festering injustices in our society is amazing.

I saw the future of Black journalism up close at the recent National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, which broke attendance records.

A panel sponsored by the Field Foundation featured several young Black journalists who are doing the journalism needed to make Chicago a fairer city. That panel included Tonika Lewis Johnson, creator of the Folded Map Project/ unBlocked Englewood, Tatiana Walk-Morris of the Investigative Project on Race & Equity and Trina Reynolds-Tyler, who won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for her work at the Invisible Institute.

It is one thing to report what is happening in the world and quite another to help shape our responses to it. Young Black journalists have found a way to not only tell our stories but to use the tools needed to fix our problems.

Makeda Crayton, executive director of Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in Washington Park, put it this way, and I am paraphrasing: As long as your car is in the driveway, no one else can pull in.

It is time for me to put my car in the garage. I'm thankful for your support over three decades, and I hope you continue to support the Chicago Sun-Times, just as I will.