I was five when I decided I wanted to be a journalist.
Back then, I watched a lot of superhero shows and cartoons, as I am sure would come as no real surprise to anyone.
I saw Superman go to work everyday alongside Lois Lane as Clark Kent as reporters for the Daily Planet. I watched as Peter Parker took amazing photos for The Daily Bugle before catching the bad guys dressed in red and blue spandex. I remember April O’Neil working alongside four teenage mutant ninja turtles before heading back to her day job as a reporter for Channel 6 News - which changed depending on the iteration of the show and comics.
So my childish mind may have equated journalism with super-heroism, but for as long as I can remember that was want I wanted to do. When I was 17 I got my first job as a journalist. I was a part-time reporter for the Moose Jaw Times Herald.
Fourteen years later, here I am still in the same field, a different city.
For as long as I can remember this is exactly where I wanted to be - or in Metropolis saving the day next to Superman, but sadly I never gained superpowers.
For more than a decade I have worked in journalism, a field which I felt was calling to me. Just like Sylvan Lake called to me four years ago when I first saw the job posting online.
Now though, now it is time to move on to a new adventure and a new position. Just like when Dick Grayson left his sidekick role of Robin behind for his grownup crime-fighting-persona of Nightwing.
Coming here four years ago was just another move, and another wrung on the journalistic ladder. I had planned to stay here for a year, maybe two, before moving on to something else, something I saw as bigger and better, shinier and newer. Four years later and here I am, finally letting the reins go to allow someone else to come in and take over, bring new ideas and viewpoints and style to this paper.
After four years, I am ready to move on to whatever adventures life has in store for me next.
I have moved a lot in my life. Growing up I often didn’t stay in one place longer than six months. So I have considered myself something of a nomad, moving constantly with no place considered home. Because I never really settled down in one place, I never really grew attached to any one place. Often I was described as aloof or standoffish growing up, because I didn’t allow myself to get close.
Coming to Sylvan Lake I felt welcomed like no other place, and found myself quickly falling in love with the town, and of course the lake. The community made it so easy to stay here for so much longer than I had ever planned.
While I am moving on to a new adventure, a new experience, I cannot say thank you enough.
Thank you for giving me the time to talk about matters that are important to you.
Thank you for you allowing me into your homes, for sitting down to coffee with me and just talking.
Thank you readers, for trusting me to share your stories.
Most of all, thank you for welcoming and accepting me into your community.