WHO IS MIKE RAPPAPORT?

A look back, a look forward

I believe it was April 1996 when three days worth of ads ran in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin asking the question above.

Who is Mike Rappaport?

The purpose of the ads was to promote a new column, three days a week, in which I would tell stories about people in our coverage area who were pursuing the California dream. For those in the other 49 states and overseas, that's the American dream with about 350 days a year of sunshine.

During the five years my column ran in the Daily Bulletin, I told more than 700 stories. When folks asked me who I was, I said I was a newspaper columnist. Why not? It was a life's dream come true, and if I had fallen into the trap of defining myself by my work, so be it.

When new editors decided to "go in a different direction" in 2001, I was caught in a conundrum. If I was a columnist, but wasn't writing a column, what was I?

It took me a while to figure it out, but I don't define myself by my work anymore. I am a baby boomer, the oldest child of Norman and Yvonne Rappaport of Fairfax, Va. I am the husband of Nicole Rappaport, without question the most amazing woman I have ever met. I am the father of Pauline and Virgile Borderies, two better children than any parent deserves.

In the end, it may be that the greatest contribution most of us make to the world is our children. Raising them is certainly the biggest job any of us ever undertake. When it comes to these two, I feel pretty good about the impact they will make, Pauline in her job as a foreign service officer and Virgile as a jazz saxophonist.

Past that, I am and always will be a writer. That's why this website exists and that's why I will do what I can to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Who is Mike Rappaport?

He's me.