It’s time to say goodbye, Bellevue.
This week was my last at the Bellevue Reporter, despite my editor’s denial (and mine a bit, too, as I pack for a cross-country move). Beginning later this month, I will be a staff reporter for the Eagle-Tribune newspaper in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
It’s a bittersweet goodbye. I’m leaving behind many great coworkers and bosses who have supported me and who wish me well on my next adventure. My colleague, Ryan Murray, and I have had the ability to bring important issues to light. We have had an impact, however small, and that’s very special to me.
The last two years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Bellevue, you have certainly never been boring.
I’ve watched an Overlake surgeon drill into someone’s skull and models show off the latest fashion on the runway. Bellevue students have sent projects into space, won international championships and altogether left me in constant amazement. It’s a little scary that they’re already smarter than I am. You might say I’m fleeing the city before they graduate and enter the workforce.
I’ve covered state and local funding issues, fires, hate crimes, a state Supreme Court case and the investigation into and prosecution of a Seahawks player, a sex-solicitation ring and multiple murderers. I’ve logged more hours writing about the Bellevue Wolverines football team than someone with very little interest in sports could have ever imagined.
Being one of your community reporters has been hugely rewarding. It was always gratifying to go out into the community and have citizens recognize my name or my work. Last week, when I began emailing my colleagues and regular sources to let them know of my departure, I received several replies protesting my move, but bidding me well and asking me to stay in touch. There are no shortage of stories to tell in Bellevue, but I doubt that I could ever feel I had truly covered every last one.
To Seth Tyler, Elizabeth Sytman, Ryan Armstrong, the city records department and the many other public information officers whom I pestered on a regular basis: I often joked that it was my job to nag you. Thanks for letting me do it and not keying my car.
To the team I’m leaving behind: I’ll miss you all.
And to Chief Mylett: The Red Sox are a far superior team than the Yankees. That is all.
