A turbulent start to a new year
If you glance over to my left, you’ll see Kevin O’Brien’s column. I’m hoping and praying that it is not, in fact, his last column. I’ve had more than a few people ask me about Kevin, and I think he does an excellent job of summarizing what he’s dealing with.
As for me, it’s a huge blow, losing my editor. Not only does it put a lot more pressure on me to get the paper out week in and week out, it also takes away from the amount of sports and games that I can cover. Oh, you’ll still see me at sporting events, but that part of my job will have to take a back seat.
I’m not entirely happy about the situation. I mean, where would you rather be? An exciting game filled with loud fans, or a board meeting, where you’re the only other person there besides the board members?
I think the answer is pretty obvious. But you adapt, you roll with the punches, and you carry on. I’ll miss Kevin, not just because he made my job a lot easier, but because he’s a cherished friend. When you work in the trenches like we have these last four years, you learn a lot about each other, and in many ways you have to pick the other up when they’re down.
Kevin has done a lot of work in teaching me what it means to be a journalist. He’s taught me about work ethic, about writing cutlines and headlines and has made me a better journalist and a better person because of it.
In this line of work, you see people come and go. The life of a journalist is often a transitory one. Guys like Kevin O’Brien or Peter Weinschenk, who spend years and even decades at a small-town, local newspaper, are the exception, not the rule, and his loss from the office is also a loss for Colby and Abbotsford and all the communities we cover.
He’s left a long-lasting mark on me, this newspaper and the community. His stories have shed light on problems big and small, and he’s won awards for the work he’s done. He loves this job, and I am hoping he can come back in the future.
So, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, and with some help from my coworkers, we should be able to continue to crank out quality stories and quality pictures and quality papers. And if I seem a little rushed, now you know why.
But it’s January, and this month is nearly over. Next week will be the last week of the month, and I often tell myself if I can get through December and January, the other ten months are (mostly) a piece of cake. Already I can tell the days have gotten longer. The warmth is not yet here, and it promises to get cold in the days ahead, but sooner rather than later, we’ll be on the other side of winter.
The new year is off to a rough start for me, but one foot in front of the other is the only way I know how to time travel. You take enough steps, and you look back and find you’ve gone a long way.
M USINGS AND G RUMBLINGS
ROSS PATTERMANN REPORTER
