Relocating to a new community, regardless of one's line of work, tends to elicit a mixture of emotions from anxiety to excitement.
That certainly was no different for me when I moved to Sundre in March 2015 to pursue a new path in my journalism career.
The opportunity presented by the editorship at the Round Up itself had me interested, but visiting the community cemented my decision to accept the position.
The view of the West Country and the majestic Rocky Mountains alone was almost enough to convince me. To top that off, the community offers plenty of amenities. As a person who absolutely dreads with every fibre of his being the thought of rush hour traffic and commuting for hours every day, I was also rather drawn in knowing it would never take more than a few minutes to get to and from work.
While I came to Sundre not really knowing anyone in the community, I felt welcome from the start. Members of community groups and organizations, as well as local officials from town council and the schools to the RCMP detachment and fire department, always either take my calls or make sure to find some time to get back to me when they can.
Now, just more than a year later, the anxiety has mostly subsided, but gladly the excitement has not. The time has flown by and I look forward to many more years serving Sundre.
I would like to express sincere appreciation to all those who have shared their thoughts on my work in person, by phone or correspondence. For fear of neglecting to mention someone in particular, I won't name names, but I don't doubt you all know who you are.
There's just something about someone randomly calling or coming up at the grocery store or at an event to say they enjoyed an article that simply makes a writer's day. Of course one of the lessons taught in journalism school is that your readers won't always like or agree with what you write ó it comes with the territory.
But I'm nevertheless always glad to hear even from readers who have an opposing or differing point of view. The hallmark of civilization is, or at least should be, the ability to engage in respectful dialogue without resorting to an angry, directionless rant.
So I continue to look forward to hearing feedback ó regardless of what it might be ó from our readers.
After all, a newspaper without readers is not a newspaper at all.
