I drove circles around this town
Trying to write circles around this town
Tryna say something with meaning
Something worth singing about
I’ve been kind and I’ve been ruthless
Yeah, I got here but the truth is
Thought when I hit it, it’d all look different
But I still got the pedal down
Drivin’ circles around this town
— — —
I’ve found that country artist Maren Morris often perfectly describes in a song how I feel, and her new album is no different. As soon as I heard the song quoted above, which she sings about finally making it big in Nashville, I thought about all the times these past 10 years I chased the news around Wells County — “driving circles around this town,” trying to leave an impact in the stories I chose to tell.
While I’m not going to say this is my last column ever to be published in the pages of The News-Banner — thanks to colleague Justin Peeper for setting the foundation for weekly contributions while working full-time elsewhere — this is my last one for now.
After two months of preparing, Friday is my last day and in July I start a new adventure with the Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District.
My son and I will use the two weeks in between jobs spending some time relaxing, getting to-do items checked off the list around the house, and a few errands accomplished. He has his 3-year check-up this month and I can’t wait to share with his pediatrician how far he’s come in the last year. In fact, we’ve both come a long way.
I don’t want to spend this time today rehashing stories and sentiments I’ve already written about in this space. I hope what I’ve reported and written in the pages of this newspaper has made our readers think a little differently, has taught them something and has helped informed them about our community. That’s the most I can hope for in a career like this.
Over the last couple of months I’ve talked to a few people about my career change to get advice, including one communications pro who left journalism to do public relations for a well-known non-profit in the region. He described working in journalism as a public service — not just for the community but for the individual as well. I hadn’t thought about it quite like that before and I liked how that sounded. I felt like I did my duty and did it well for many years.
But there will always be non-subscribers who choose to stay uninformed, and that will irk me to infinity.
Recent conversations circling around the idea to bypass Ossian with a new highway have left me annoyed and perplexed, although somewhat unsurprised if I’m being honest. When I came back into the office last week after these county meetings and shared with my colleagues what was stated in a public forum, Mark Miller was the first to ask: Did I want to write about it in my “farewell” column? The thought, I assured him, had already crossed my mind.
Citizens have a personal responsibility to educate themselves on what’s going on in their communities. It’s not up to their government to figure out a way to best widely share every detail about every plan in the works. If you want a fair and balanced report of what’s going on around you, you have to use your local news source. Wells County should feel extremely lucky to have a newspaper like the Banner in its backyard when so many communities would kill to have that kind of information at their fingertips.
You won’t always agree with what you read. It’s not always perfect. But it’s pretty darn good and the reporters work hard every day in service of their community.
Can’t afford to subscribe? The Wells County Public Library has copies, as do many local businesses and coffee shops. I know because I see them when I frequent these establishments.
I’ll be honest, it will be a weird adjustment to not be in the know all day every day. Having that kind of insight into Wells County is something I hope I never took for granted. Now it’s going to be on me to read the newspaper to learn about what our elected officials are doing.
I will forever be the Banner’s biggest cheerleader out in the community as a “regular” citizen. I’ll still wear my “Subscribe to your local paper” shirt. Because the fact of the matter is, there is no other publication quite like it. And it’s worth every penny.
jessica@news-banner.com
