In flux: 'Sorry it took so long'
Today I did something I have been meaning to do for 12 years: return these two pictures to the person I borrowed them from.
At City High, the last newspaper of the year always features a “senior salute,” and for the 2000 edition I was assigned a story about a senior who was a member of the local DeMolay group. I interviewed the guy and asked if he had any DeMolay-related pictures of him. He gave me the pictures, we used the close-up shot for the paper, and I have had them ever since.
He graduated so I could not return the pics at school. For a while I think the pictures hung around in the Newslab until I took them home and resolved to mail them back. For some reason, though, I never did. Ironically, I found the pictures last night — in the same Ziplock bag with my baggie of Trojan Field turf — in an unsealed envelope addressed to him.
Twelve years is a long time to have borrowed something, especially from someone I did not really know. So I decided it was high time to give the pictures back.
Today I tracked him down on Facebook and got his address. (His profile is completely open to the public — thankfully.) I made out another envelope and inserted the pictures with a little note that said:
I dropped it in the outgoing mailbox at the post office around two o’clock.
Sorry is an understatement. I have no clue if he really cared — perhaps he had copies — but I am glad to have closed that case. Frankly, it was the shame of my journalism career.
At City High, the last newspaper of the year always features a “senior salute,” and for the 2000 edition I was assigned a story about a senior who was a member of the local DeMolay group. I interviewed the guy and asked if he had any DeMolay-related pictures of him. He gave me the pictures, we used the close-up shot for the paper, and I have had them ever since.
He graduated so I could not return the pics at school. For a while I think the pictures hung around in the Newslab until I took them home and resolved to mail them back. For some reason, though, I never did. Ironically, I found the pictures last night — in the same Ziplock bag with my baggie of Trojan Field turf — in an unsealed envelope addressed to him.
Twelve years is a long time to have borrowed something, especially from someone I did not really know. So I decided it was high time to give the pictures back.
Today I tracked him down on Facebook and got his address. (His profile is completely open to the public — thankfully.) I made out another envelope and inserted the pictures with a little note that said:
I recently found these pictures I borrowed from you in high school for the newspaper and wanted to return them. Sorry it took so long.
~[The Quiet Man]
I dropped it in the outgoing mailbox at the post office around two o’clock.
Sorry is an understatement. I have no clue if he really cared — perhaps he had copies — but I am glad to have closed that case. Frankly, it was the shame of my journalism career.
