Senior Editor Rob Bates once said, “Laura is the queen of self-referential blogs.” Well, no subtle references here- this blog is all about me. JCK and me.

Tomorrow is my last day at the magazine, after almost three years of working here. I began as an assistant to JCK’s power trio- Mark Smelzer, Hedda Schupak, and Donna Borrelli- an inspiring threesome. Each asked about my aspirations early on and, when I told them I wanted to write, pledged to help me get there.

A year and a half later, I was the lone associate editor for JCK, JCK Luxury, and JCKstyle among six senior editors, each experts in a specific area of the industry.

I soon found my place within the editorial staff, as a member of “Team Fashion,” along with Senior Editor Jen Heebner and Editor of JCK Luxury and JCKstyle, Carrie Soucy (a.k.a. “the girls”). What a wonderful place to be. In addition to making two great friends, I got to write about fashion, celebrities, trends, high-end retailers…pretty much anything relevant that interested me. I also got to travel extensively and write about my journeys- some of my favorites were to Brazil for the Feninjer fair, Italy for the Vicenza fair, and Montana for a palladium mining expedition. Among other things, I learned to blog, put in time at three Vegases and a Miami with Erica, graced the cover of a magazine (thanks, Bacilio), attempted a literary treasure hunt, organized a celebrated internal birthday system, lost and regained a gold chain-link necklace, and made all The Bachelors jewelry-relevant.

Ultimately, I’ve decided to return to school to study psychology- a second love of mine. It’s funny when I tell people in the industry what I’m doing. Most respond with some variation of “when you graduate, come back to the industry, we’ll need you!” I think this means the people in our industry are crazy. Then perhaps I’m crazy, too, because I’ve felt very much at home here.

Thanks to all of you with whom I worked- writers, producers, artists, sales people, retailers, manufacturers, and designers…I have so enjoyed getting to know you, and I will follow all of your careers with great interest over the next years.

Best of luck!

Laura

Just a sampling of the fun had at JCK…L-R: Me, Art Director Todd Gast, and Senior Editor Jen Heebner

JCK