We used to have an old saying at the Post that you could leave once and come back, and you could leave again and return. But if you left the third time, that was it.

Well, I left once and came back and now I must say I’m leaving again. So this will be my second time, and I’m hoping I’ve burned no bridges in case one of these days I get a chance to return for that third time that may just be the charm.

It was not easy going into the publisher’s office to relay the news, just like when I had to go into the editor’s office that first time to say I was moving on.

You never know exactly what the future holds, so I’ve learned over my years to never say never. I never thought I’d be making that brutal commute over to the big city of Charlotte ever again, but here I go.

I’ve enjoyed my time back, just as I did during that much longer run in my first time at the Post, which lasted from 1993 until 2014. And in some ways, it was just like I had hit the pause button when I returned five years later since many things were still the same. But much had changed, and if there’s one constant in the news business, it is change — always has been and likely always will be.

I’m sure the next person who takes my spot will have just as much of an adventure as I did. That will be Elisabeth Strillacci in the editor’s position, and she’s a known figure for many around the area since she’s been out meeting people and writing stories as the Post’s news editor for quite some time now.

I’m hoping she has plenty of grand tales to send along to readers going forward. She definitely has made my job easier with the tasks she’s taken on since starting here.

Other longtime mainstays of the Post will continue their heavy lifting, as in sports guy extraordinaire Mike London and chief designer Andy Mooney, who has much more on his plate these days than you could imagine.

Our newer folks, Chandler Inions and Brad Dountz, continue to amaze me with the work they do and the effort they put in. I’m sure they’ll continue it.

As I look back, it seems to me I had a lot more good ideas for columns in my younger writing days but I never quite got around to putting most of them down on paper, or typing them into the computer as the case may be. I should have kickstarted myself a little earlier, but it was like watching my youngest son on the high school basketball court being wide open but not putting up the shot. He came by that trait honestly — I never could pull the trigger on a shot either, wide open or not. Maybe that’s why I never made it on to the NBA, well that and no 3-point line when I was playing and all those other reasons that I wasn’t really built for that game either, like skill and athletic ability.

It was the same way with writing things that I wanted to, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. So all those unwritten columns will have to remain that way, since I’ve forgotten most of the good ones anyway.

Some of those song ideas I had hummed to myself too — they just disappeared with the years since I didn’t get them down on paper or saved as a recording.

Someone else will have to craft the tales of the good ol’ days that I enjoyed looking back on, since I’m not even allowed to mention that phrase around my house. I was hoping whatever I came up with  would be good fodder for someone to chuckle at if they chose to read along, but I tried not to take myself too seriously on any of the pages that included my words either.

So if anyone asks what kind of editor I was, just say, “unassuming.” That’s what I fancy myself being like beyond work also, though I’m not sure that trait always surfaces as intended.

Feel free to encourage any other writers, or artists, or musicians that you get a chance to, since I’m sure the world will not be as pleasant a place without someone creating new material in some way for us all to enjoy.

As for me, I’m not venturing so far away that I won’t be able to enjoy some fine local barbecue occasionally or all the other treats around us. I just may not be able to make it in for that downtown Tuesday taco special any longer, but I did have a good one this week as a nice goodbye.

I also was able to make one more regular stop for a treat that I enjoy weekly as I stroll downtown after deadline. And my last planned celebration: a Friday peanut butter and jelly sandwich to wrap up the week. If I make it through the grind one more time, that’s all the celebratory feasting I need. I did the same thing at my last job and may just continue that tradition again.

Thanks for reading along.

This is Paris Goodnight’s last column as editor of the Salisbury Post.