I have known this day was coming for several months now, yet as that day is now here, I do not know where to begin. A newspaperman at a loss for words. A funny thought.
My wife and I have made the difficult decision to move west of the Mississippi in the coming weeks. She will begin her nursing career on the PICU floor at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, while I begin teaching high school history and coaching runners at Veritas Christian Academy in O’Fallon, MO.
With all that change approaching faster than I would like, it is with great sadness that my final day at The Journal-News will be this Thursday, May 14.
First and foremost, I have the utmost faith in the plans the Lord has for my wife and me, and little doubt that life in St. Charles County will be wonderful. But as I have often repeated over the past three years, my life in Hillsboro, my life as editor of The Journal-News, has been wonderful too.
My heart races with the parallel thrills of new adventure and the grief of leaving this one. I recognize and celebrate with all my soul the great faithfulness of the Lord and the goodness that He seeks to draw me to, but I still can mourn the loss of the great goodness I already have.
On my first day at the paper, Mary emphasized that ‘The Journal-News is a family,’ and that has proven to be more than true each of the 1,059 days that followed.
I am so very thankful to Mary, Kyle, John, and Susie for their generous investment in my career and, more importantly, in me, and for the countless opportunities they have provided me. I will always remember the great kindness they, along with Cheri, Cayden, Carol, and the rest of The Journal-News family, have shown me. Integrity and truth are the foundation of the newspaper’s mission, but kindness (and the other great fruits of the Spirit) are a close second here.
I will miss them all terribly.
I was asked the other day what my favorite stories were that I covered over the years. A few jumped to mind: a conversation with Tom Gooding at First Community Bank, multiple interviews with Zach Wygal, phone calls with Bob Cyphers about the I-70 Serial Killer, Jeremy Connor at Hurst-Rosche, meeting the late construction giant Ralph Korte, Dawn Young receiving the Sertoma Award... (I’m rambling now, a true and eager student of Mr. D.)
Truthfully, I liked them all. I quickly learned to love the interviews and phone calls to strangers, inviting them to tell me their life stories and then doing my best to write them, because all of our Montgomery County stories matter and are worth it.
On the other side, making mistakes always haunted me, and I made plenty. I had not written much in my life before working here, only a few NFL mock drafts here and there and a handful of movie reviews. But I learned so much on the job, and I thank the community for putting up with me.
In some ways, I feel like I am just now getting the hang of this. But today I must not let myself dwell on that.
The kindness I have experienced here at The Journal-News is far from limited to my coworkers. Many, many people have been generous with compliments over the years, and I cannot truly express how much they mean to me. Nor have they been forgotten. You, Journal-News readers, have been far more encouraging to me than I or my work deserve. I’ll treasure your kind words forever.
It would be dishonest to say I am without fear for what this new future holds for me. A ship is safe in the harbor, after all. “You are not just leaving your hometown,” sadness tells me. “You are leaving your whole world.”
Humorously enough, it wasn’t until I first moved south 18 miles to Greenville that my love for Hillsboro was first recognized and then reassured. It was at Greenville that I learned it’s okay to be proud of where you came from, especially if it’s Hillsboro. Toppers stick together.
Hillsboro has always been my world and my safe harbor. Old Settlers has always been the World’s Fair, the Orpheum Theater the world’s finest, and of course, The Journal-News, the world’s best newspaper. Serving as editor here at the paper has provided me with the opportunity to contribute to my hometown, and I am so thankful.
Writing this column each month has brought me great joy. Thirty-five times the Lord provided me with the opportunity to write on the things that I believe to be noble, fair, good and praiseworthy, and shifted my heart accordingly.
I must make good use of all that the Lord has provided.
Of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Andrew is often simply referred to as Peter’s brother. There is no gospel of his account or letters from Andrew. He is only mentioned three times in the Gospel of John, but each time he is described as bringing someone to come and see Jesus.
This includes his brother, whom Christ subsequently dubs the ‘rock’ of the church. Andrew was not called by Christ to lead the disciples like Peter was; rather Andrew was called to bring his brother to Jesus so he could. Andrew faithfully sowed the field that he was given.
I praise the Lord for the fields that he has given me over my three years here at The Journal-News and pray that I too have done my work faithfully in His name for His mission.
“Every issue,” Mike Plunkett told me on my first day on the job, “we are writing the history of this town.”
I did not take that lightly, and I hope to have made my parents proud.
Thank you for always reading, Journal-News readers; God bless you.
