MV LiUU HAIIEK

MV LiUU HAIIEK

For the first time in nearly five years, my Wednesday morning was not spent supervising the production of the Rappahannock News.

This week, I began my new duties as managing editor of the Fauquier Times-Democrat. It is an exciting change, and one filled ■^with challenges.

But I leave the Rappahannock News, and Rappahannock County, with mixed feelings. Seven years ago, when I moved to here to take a position as an assistant chef at The Inn at Little Washington, I could scarcely have envisioned how my life would unfold.

It has been a time of great change and growth, both personally and professionally. Like anyone else, all the times have not been good. But even the difficult experiences are an opportunity for learning. As my Uncle George once told me, “Without the rocks, there would be no babble in the brook.”

But my years as managing editor of the Rappahannock News have been a wonderful experience. I have learned more about journalism, and people, than I thought I would ever know. I don’t think there is a journalism school classroom anywhere that ^.,x:an match the learning opportuni« • ties of a job at a small community newspaper.

The best part of the job was the contact with my readers. Not a day went by that I didn’t meet someone new, or learned something from a chance encounter oh the street.

Being the editor of a small newspaper is a far cry from the duties of a big-city editor. Along the way, I learned that smalltown journalism is personal. Editors at larger papers don’t run into the subjects of their editorials at the bank or the post office.

That, obviously, is a mixed blessing. I’ve gotten a few compliments from those encounters, but I’ve also gotten a few less appreciative remarks (sometimes accompanied by mutterings about lawyers). - But that too, is part of the job. My father, a long-time reporter, gave me a piece of advice about our profession when I took my first newspaper job at a small