Houston, it has been an honour.
For two-and-a-half years now, I've been out and about your community, meandering the streets and meeting the people that truly make a community what it is: a home for many.
And it's a home that is different than the ones I've known in the past, one I grew to appreciate all the more for it.
As my first job as a reporter, I suppose I must first say a huge thank you to everyone I had the pleasure of meeting. Thank you for your patience and understanding while I amassed all the knowledge and "know-how" that I have today.
Not that I am by any means done learning; I am after all going to university, but looking back, and also watching as my replacement Andrew finagles the finer points of page layout, I realize how far I've come.
I would also offer up an apology to anybody who may have dealt with one of my errors. I hope I can say I learned from them.
I sure did learn a lot in this job.
The most poignant of which was to leave my innate shy-ness behind. Streeters sure do cure you of that, having to approach anyone in the street to see if they'd answer the opinion piece for the paper.
Graduating from high school I never imagined I could tell one all about the usage and dangers of Monosodium Methanearsenate (MSMA) in B.C. forests, or not only get to meet mayors and MLA's, but have the privilege to ask them questions and have them answered.
Nope. In high school I rather thought I'd be a business executive. The whole formal suit, maybe an assistant, things would be good (Sex in the City was one of my favourite shows growing up, after all).
Turns out I'm more Carrie than I am Samantha, and I love it.
But the chance to study creative writing in Victoria is equally as exciting, and I'm bound to enjoy the new challenges ahead of me, however quickly they may have come.
Of course, leaving now means I'll have to read about how the Pleasant Valley Properties development goes in the paper. It is a wonderful development that I was pleased to see move forward, and an exciting one for the community of Houston to complement the services of their Leisure Facility.
Cheers, Houston, and enjoy the changes just as I plan to enjoy mine.