First of all, let’s get one thing straight. This is not goodbye.

It is true that today is my last day at The Natchez Democrat. I will clean out my desk, will stop receiving e-mail at the newspaper and soon my voice will not be in the voice mail system.

I will not walk into the building every day and see all the smiling faces and hear the friendly good mornings from the fine fellow Democrat employees whom I love very much.

I will not be among the first to know all the breaking news. And I will not find lovely stacks of correspondence on my desk that suggest great stories that I might consider writing for the paper.

But this is not goodbye.

I am steeped in Natchez like a well-used teabag in a beloved cup. I am like Walt Whitman in one of my favorites of his poems — I am “stuccoed all over” with Natchez.

And as I leave the newspaper, I take with me memories of many years of great joy at having been able to know so many of you and to tell your stories.

Truth be told, it is all of you, the readers of the newspaper, that make working at a place like The Democrat such a pleasure and privilege. I will miss the conversations, the interviews, the laughter and the tears we have shared over the years.

But this is not goodbye.

One of my favorite autobiographies is by the late Moss Hart, a famous Broadway writer and producer. He named his book, “Act One.”

In it, Hart talks about the ease of writing the first act of a play. “A first act carries an impetus of its own that is almost sufficient to carry the writer along with it … and there are some first acts that literally seem to write themselves.”

It is the writing of the second act that is “the danger spot of every play.”

I have been privileged to spend Act One and Act Two at The Democrat with a short break in between two very different stints with the paper.

Both were challenging and engaging — and both played out with an ever-changing scene and cast of characters.

In Act Two, I worked with my colleagues through Sept. 11, 2001; my colleagues and you, the readers, mourned with me at the loss of my husband in 2004; and we in the newsroom wrote about Hurricane Katrina and the courageous families who sought refuge in our community for the entire year following that devastating storm in 2005.

I am proud that my name will be spread across many years of work in The Democrat archives.

Now I guess you could say that I’m moving into Act Three of my life. The only danger for me in Act Two might have been to become too secure in my comfort and therefore to close the door to new possibilities.

The inspiration for the new vocation ahead of me began more than 10 years ago, but only in the last couple of years have I acquiesced in it. Now I am both ready and able.

For the past year, I have taken online courses in a master of divinity program.

In the fall, I will become a fulltime student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., on the outskirts of Atlanta.

It is a three-year program, but I have a slight jumpstart with the 18 hours that will transfer from my online work.

My expectation is that I will become an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) upon completion of the work at Columbia.

I am trying not to think much past that moment but simply wait and see where it leads.

Some of my dear friends tell me it should lead me right back to Natchez to work. Well, that is a pleasant thought. Whatever I do and wherever I go, though, Natchez always will be home. I am selling my house but keeping an apartment here.

No, this is not goodbye. You will see me around. And I will see you. I thank you, all of you, for your kind words of encouragement. You are the wind beneath my wings.

Joan Gandy has served in many positions during her long association with The Natchez Democrat.