Reflecting on a year of learning

Wow, time has flown by. “Speeding Through Life” is as accurate a depiction of this column as can be as a year has come and gone since I started with the Tribune-Phonograph.

Over the course of the past year I have covered meetings, events, sports, court cases, elections and much more. I’ve covered dairy breakfasts, snowmobile shows and races, First City Days, a number of fairs, the Christmas Parade, and other events which have been both an enlightening experience as well as just plain fun.

These are events that I might not have otherwise went to if I wasn’t working here. I learned that showing cattle at local fairs isn’t always easy as cows can be ornery and it’s up to this 100-pound kid to wrangle them in and get them to walk in a circle.

I’ve also learned that snowmobiles can race on ice while at the Dorchester snowmobile races. During that time, I learned that the body of water located in Dorchester Park is Dorchester Lake and not Dorchester Pond.

I also learned that there are graduates from this area spread all throughout the United States that are doing amazing things.

Although I grew up in this area, we are sometimes kept in our own prisms. Mine was overwhelmingly Colby-centric. I lived in the Town of Green Grove but I went to school in Colby so outside of going to friends’ houses, that was largely my prism. Now, I cover everything from Milan to Riplinger and everywhere in between. It’s been a process learning about the areas that were largely outside of my prism when I grew up.

I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know hundreds of people that I’ve met throughout my time working here at the Tribune-Phonograph, especially my coworkers. I’m very appreciative of all the support I’ve been given by every name you see in that staff box on page six every week.

Reporting on things isn’t always the popular thing to do as we are required to have opinions at times and those opinions aren’t usually seen the same way by all.

It’s a tough thing to get used to. The criticism. The social media barbs. If you get something wrong, it’s as public as public can be whereas in other professions, that’s not the case.

The amount of support and encouragement we’ve received from city workers, school members and others balances it out.

However, that’s what life and this job in particular are about. If you stop learning, you’ve either passed on or you’ve given up.

I’ve got plenty of learning to do, as we all do. It’s my hope that we can all keep learning together.

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