Serving the High Plains

Column: Hoping for a quiet 2013

I for one am hoping and ready for a New Year that is not as eventful as 2012.

I know, that is a bit of a contradiction as I am a reporter and an eventful year is our bread and butter.

Well after this past year, I'd settle for some crackers and maybe a little cheese. Tragedies have seemed to dominate headlines over the past few years.

Even with a Presidential election, fiscal cliff, largest Powerball lottery jackpot and even the prediction of the end of the world, news headlines were littered with updates of loss or damage.

Locally, that has also been the case for at least the past two years and as you all well know with tragedy comes the press.

Now, I have often had to tell people, "Look I just report the news, I'm not the bad guy. It's not my intention to do ill will."

I wont lie, there have been times when I didn't want to do my job, my heart was not in it, though I did it anyway.

It's hard when the story hits close to home, when you're one of those affected. "It comes with the territory" I tell myself, "it's the nature of the job."

Sometimes, you can't help but feel like the bad guy, even when you are keeping the public informed and aware of what is going on in their community.

Though just as I begin to let the negative get me down, I reflect on the good that has come from doing this job.

Now, I've made my fair share of people angry along the way, though I've also made many friends.

I'm what many would call a people person, a social butterfly if you will, albeit a macho butterfly.

So, this job has been the perfect fit for me, having met so many great people along the way and share their stories with the readers of the CMI Newspaper family.

There is always going to be tragedy, stories which I have to gather my composure to write. I'm still going to be "the press" or other derogative references which I will not say because of explicit language.

However, there will always be some nugget of truth or beam of good news I will get to share with our readers. Those nuggets and beams are what keep me going, along with the thought of maybe, just maybe I've done some sort of good along the way.

So 2013, may you bring rain, comfort, understanding and happiness to the readers of the Quay County Sun.

Thomas Garcia is a senior writer at the Quay County Sun. He can be contacted by phone at 461-1953 or e-mail at [email protected]