First I fell in love with newspapers, and then I fell in love with her.
Without the former, the latter wouldn't have happened.
It was the fall of 2002 and I was working at The Daily Athenaeum, WVU's student-run newspaper. I sat closest to the newsroom intercom system, so anyone who wanted access to the building in the evenings would ring the buzzer and await a response. Most of the time, the folks who answered the calls were sportswriters.
I didn't mind. Not when it was her on the other side of the door.
That's how I met the woman who'd become my wife. I first saw Lauren Hough in the hallway of a newspaper building. We shared our first conversation in a newsroom. Our first social event together was a haunted hayride for a newspaper gathering. We got to know each other better at a fellow writer's house, where we carved pumpkins together.
Lauren became my best friend, and we married in 2008. Her eyes are usually the first to set sight on my copy, and her feedback means more to me than the opinion of anyone else. She isn't just the head coach of our household - she is the owner, president, general manager, concession stand operator and popcorn vendor.
She also holds the title of World's Best Mom. Ask our 4-year-old son, Gunnar. He'll tell you.
And now, Lauren is leaving newspapers behind because of me. Friday was our last day at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, me as the sports editor and she as the assistant city editor. I'm headed to Marshall University, where the title of assistant athletic director of fan/donor engagement and communications awaits me.
It is the next step in a circuitous journey that started on the West Side hills.
Even as a kid, newspapers had my heart. As my Dad tells it, he lobbied for Charleston Newspapers to give me a route when I was 10 years old. I delivered the Gazette before spending my day at J.E. Robins Elementary, and a bundle of Daily Mail papers awaited me on the corner of Beech and Garvin after school.
Most days I'd load the papers in a red wagon and drag it noisily down each street, neatly folding them and snapping a rubber band around them two or three times.
It didn't matter if my Dad took me to Tudor's Biscuit World or Bob Evans for breakfast after those early Sunday morning deliveries, or if it was a school day and he had to head to work before I crawled out of bed, he made sure the newspaper - specifically the sports section - was in my hands.
I'd hide the section inside of notepads and textbooks to conceal it from teachers. That might have seemed like I was distracted in the classroom. Now it looks like I was in training.
This much is certain - it led me here.
I was born and raised in Charleston, so returning here after marriage to start a family fulfilled a dream. The Daily Mail offered me the chance to cover major college athletics, and later the bosses handed me the keys to the sports department. The Gazette-Mail was just crazy enough to do the same a year ago when this city's two newspapers combined.
It was not a role I took lightly. This is, after all, your newspaper, not mine. As my former editor and longtime mentor always said, this is about the readers. Without you, there is no us.
You're the content creators and the consumers. I've just been privileged enough to be one of the messengers.
So, remember, this profession is about people - not points or passes or pitches. And, goodness, if Charleston has a surplus of anything, it is great people with great stories.
In order to tell them, though, one must go out and find those stories. Talk to people, ask questions, find answers, look under rocks and open doors.
You never know what you'll find on the other side.
Maybe it'll be an award-winning story, maybe it'll be a piece that entertains or informs, or maybe you'll inspire a kid sitting on a wagon to become a sportswriter.
Who knows, maybe instead you'll find the love of your life on the other side the door.
And one day she'll take your hand as you leave your first love behind.
Contact Chuck McGill at 304-348-7949 or chuck.mcgill@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmcgill.