Thank you (again) and see you later

We’ve been here before, but for the second time, I’m bidding the Clinton Herald farewell as Sports Editor once again.

I am so entirely grateful for the opportunities this community and this paper has given me over the last five years. I am grateful for Ron Gutierrez and Scott Levine for hiring me as an assistant in 2017. I am grateful that they trusted me to take over the Sports Editor job less than six months into it. I am even more grateful the entire office understood and wished me well when I left the position in 2021 for nursing school.

But then they went above and beyond my expectations. I was able to contribute for an entire year even though I had left the paper full time. When I saw the position open again, I asked to be considered and once again I was welcomed as Sports Editor.

Now, personal changes have caused another move. My boyfriend, Tyler, has worked so hard to get an incredible opportunity to advance his career with Purina. The position has taken him to southeast Missouri. I am so incredibly proud of him and his work and even more happy he wants to take on this new chapter with me.

That means I’m moving nearly seven hours from Clinton and will no longer be able to cover sports. I am unbelievable lucky to have been accepted into a graduate program at Elmhurst University so I will be able to continue my nursing education at the graduate level from Missouri. I am super excited about that aspect.

However, if my timeline with the Clinton Herald doesn’t say enough, the entire paper has really become some of my biggest supporters over the last five years and I truly think of them as family. Everyone from Char and Jenna in the newsroom to all of those in the ad department and downstairs to Vicki and Pam in the front or Chris behind the scenes. I’m grateful for everyone I have worked with there and hope that this community remembers how hard the people on 6th Avenue South work to give you a product.

I’m also so thankful that this community has accepted me over the years and let me capture the many amazing moments and tell the incredible stories of our high school athletes. We are so lucky to live in this area of the state and we really have some of the best athletes, coaches, teachers and parents you could ask for.

I got to see state runs, state titles, comebacks and heartbreaks. Every single sport and every single school has given me an incredible pool of stories to write about and I cannot say enough about the people I have interacted with over the last five years. If I have spoken to you, I am truly grateful for your interest and your help in providing sports coverage for our high school athletes.

There were definitely times where this job was hard. It’s not easy to make everyone happy all the time when we cover eight different schools in two states and three counties. There has been social media backlash and insults at times, there has been complaints and there has been stress. I wouldn’t change any of it, because it’s all mediated by the things I’ve been able to experience with the paper.

Thank you to all the athletes and coaches who showed me respect, entertained my questions and camera and provided help in getting results and things organized. I couldn’t have done it without you and I know the paper was never the No. 1 priority.

Thank you to the parents who have in turn thanked me. It means more than you know.

And mostly thank you to all the incredible athletes at Clinton, Camanche, Prince of Peace, Fulton, Unity Christian, Northeast, Easton Valley and Central DeWitt. There is no way this job would be worth it without the stories you have provided.

My family and Tyler’s parents are still in the area, as are many of our friends. We will be back frequently. I’ve even had the opportunity to take on a couple of projects with the Clinton Herald, which I cannot be more grateful to be a part of. So … I’ll be around. Just much less now that home in Sikeston, MO.

Eric Schweizer has been working with me for a week and I am very confident that he will get to know the area and be a huge asset to high school athletes. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does for the Herald.

I’m out of here. But thank you once again, Clinton. It’s really been something indescribable.