By the time you read this, I will be gone. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but it’s true; my last day at the Reedsburg Independent was Tuesday, February 26, after spending four and a half years working here.
My tenure has spanned an incredible time in Reedsburg’s history. Three weeks after I graduated from college and started at the Indy as an intern, the city was overcome when the Baraboo River jumped its banks and inundated the downtown area with water. I was at my parents’ house at the time on North Webb Avenue, and we watched the water creep up through the backyard toward the house as it had many times before. This time was different; the water also crept down North Webb Avenue and eventually surrounded the house. My parents were lucky as their’s was not included in the 20 homes and businesses condemned following the flood.
Reedsburg’s landscape has changed since then but its resolve hasn’t. The city has transformed in ways I never could have imagined growing up here. As a reporter, I watched as an empty corner of Nishan Park blossomed into a beautiful Veterans Memorial with the hardwork and dedication of dozens of community groups. I watched the downtown area transform with new businesses, new apartments, and new ideas. And I’ve had the privilege of watching my parents achieve their dream of starting up and running their own business, Jimmy’s To-Go, on North Webb Avenue.
The past nearly five years has been an incredible time in my own history as well. Not long after I started at the Indy, I went on a blind date with my college roommate’s older brother, John, and we were married four years later in a beautiful ceremony in the Assembly Chambers of the Wisconsin State Capitol, the dome of which I see every morning from the bedroom in the house we now own.
So many events are contained in that one run-on sentence, so many things I never thought I would do. I never pictured myself as a homeowner or one-half of a marriage, two things I’ve become in the last year. For that matter, I never thought I would go to college; I’ve been a writer since I first put pencil to paper at age five, and at first I questioned whether writers needed college. My first mentor, Brian Pittman, a teacher at Reedsburg Area High School, convinced me they did, changing the trajectory of my life forever.
In college, knowing that people who are good readers tend to be good writers, I pursued and earned an English degree. At the time, I thought I would never return to Wisconsin, but three and a half years of living in Iowa convinced me otherwise.
After spending a year in high school writing for the Student Voice, I thought I would never again work for a newspaper. Deadlines were stifling, but in college, I learned to thrive on them. After graduation, I jumped at the opportunity to intern at my hometown newspaper. Four and a half years later, I’m still pushing to meet another deadline.
It is an understatement to say working at the Indy has given me a totally different perspective on my hometown. Despite having spent 16 years living here before leaving for college, I had no idea that so much was going on here. Artists, actors, elected representatives, farmers, business owners, movers and shakers, musicians, teachers, pillars of the community, local folks, parents, kids, students, hundreds of people over the last four and a half years have invited me into their lives, their goings-on, and let me tell their stories. I’ve enjoyed seeing how the wheels turn in Reedsburg and getting to know so many people with a passion for this community.
Now I’m feel like I’m leaving home all over again. I am sad to leave the Reedsburg Independent office and my coworkers Jeff, Carla, Karen and Dale. Collectively they have taught me that no person is an island; without the support of one another, we all will fail. They have led by example and demonstrated what it means to be dedicated, and their service to the Reedsburg area is unparalleled. But they do it all without bravado because as friends and neighbors to our readers, their investment in the community is more than just selling ads, writing stories, or answering the telephone. They are helping make Reedsburg a better place to live.
I could not have stumbled upon a better mentor than Jeff Seering. I have very early memories of seeing him at school events, and I can’t say that I knew specifically who he was, just that he was “that guy with the camera who is always at everything.” Now having been on the other side of the page, I can tell you that Jeff really is that guy who is always at everything, more than most of our readers could ever know or wholly appreciate. He has taught me everything I know about a job that I love, and by example, he has taught me so much about what it means to be a good person. When I walked into this office for the first time in May 2008, I had no journalism experience except for my high school newspaper and a stint at a magazine in college. I’ve still never taken a journalism class, but Jeff has always treated my ideas and contributions with respect. No longer being the beneficiary of his wisdom and guidance has been the hardest part of leaving this job.
I’ve decided to take a full-time position at MadCat, a store I’ve worked at part-time for over three years. We’re locally owned and operate three locations in Madison, and we are famous for our wealth of knowledge on pet nutrition and behavior. I am extremely proud of the work we do in the rescue community, and I look forward to dedicating more of my time to the relentless service we give to Madisonians and their pets. I am sad to leave the Indy and Reedsburg, but I am excited for the future and the new opportunities it holds.
