Coming up next on ‘Jackie’s Life’….

Bittersweet.

That’s the only word to describe my life right now.

My 3-year anniversary at KIMA is coming up shortly. It will be a happy and sad milestone. July 20th will also be my last day as the producer for KIMA-TV. Just writing that sentence makes me tear up. I knew the day would come when I would move on from little old Yakima, but I just never liked to think about it.

New roads are ahead of me. Roads I really didn’t expect to take. But then again, I never really anticipated becoming a producer when I first dipped my toes into the broadcasting world. And now I’ve produced close to 1500 live newscasts (and will even walk away with an Emmy nomination and an SPJ award under my belt! Woohoo!). I can’t even begin to sum up my last three years in one blog post, but I can say that Yakima has become home to me and KIMA has been the best first job out of college a growing producer could ever ask for.

So now that I’ve buried the lead quite well, let me announce what I’ll be doing: I’m stepping aside from television for a brief time to go teach English in Japan for 7 months!

Perhaps this seems like an unusual move for my career, but I’ve been wanting to go back to Japan for a long time now. I just didn’t know how or when. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been five years since I left Japan from my little study abroad trip in college. I left there feeling like it wasn’t really goodbye. There have been so many times in recent years when things have reminded me about my desire to go back. But it was just something I kept pushing to the back of my mind…until last March. Covering the earthquake and tsunami was really difficult for me. I usually don’t get emotional covering news about disasters (you learn to grow a thick skin working in news), but it was incredibly hard for me to watch the images and hear the fear and desperation in the people’s voices. I remembered how much I love Japan and the people, and how much I wanted and needed to go back.

So…I’m going back! Back to the land of Hello Kitty and all things cute! The details are still being worked out, but I just found out that I will be teaching junior high school students in Sakai City, Osaka! It was a complete surprise that they offered me a position there (I assumed I’d be sent to a very rural area or close to where my family lives in Hokkaido), but I love the Kansai area and am absolutely thrilled to go back there!

As for the news business? My intention is to return to regular programming…after the break.

So goodbye, Pacific Northwest! And konnichiwa, Kansai! I’m off to new (Asian) adventures! ^_^