Growing together

It has been a long, quick year. That’s how I would describe our season at the Pioneer. 

Time went by in the blink of an eye, and the work, well that went even faster. 

Over that time the memories we’ve made–I’ve made–feel like a lifetime's worth. Well, actually many lives worth. It’s an honor to hear someone's story and be entrusted to share it with dignity.

The relationships I’ve built over the past year here in Waseca are, simply put, the reason for doing the newspaper.

The relationship I developed with the Nelson family is towards the top of my list. Also near the top are Matt and Becky Petsinger’s children, who wander through our main street office regularly, and whom I have come to love dearly. 

Dave Zika–his connection to the community, and his open, friendly approach–are everything I hoped for when I was looking for a columnist. I can’t tell you how many conversations I had with folks about finding a columnist; then Dave walked in my door. From the moment he introduced himself, I felt something special. Dave has a spark that our newspaper was looking for. When he told me he would hand write his columns, I knew it was too good to be true. But look, like the Pioneer, he’s still here, too. 

Missy Dunn is a character. I’m grateful for her charm and her school board coverage. 

I’m incredibly grateful for Mark and Barb Buker. The opportunity they gave us in selling us the new building, where the newspaper will be located by the end of July, is very generous. 

The memories from this past year are strong. 

Mr. Trickey, forgive me I can’t recall his first name, walked in on our first day and paid for his subscription with a $100 bill; He told me to use the change to reduce the cost for another subscriber. This year, he did the same again. 

Other folks told us they had never subscribed to a newspaper before, but said the Pioneer was worth reading.

The quote about how finally Waseca had a paper that wasn’t going to be used to line a bird cage with or wrap fish in, was not actually written by Jurgen Peters, but his wife. She called in to rescrubscribe this week and, well, I happened to answer the phone and I love to engage people in conversations.

This year has been filled with many, many hours of work. Thousands of dollars spent. More than half a million words published (Personally, in stories I’ve written). And several lifetimes worth of memories. 

I could write about the challenges, and some of the good moments, but for today, for this issue, I’m just going to settle in, take a deep breath, and relax. There will be more challenges, more beautiful moments, and, because of you, more editions of the Pioneer.

I can’t stop without thanking our advertisers in addition to our readers. Without both, we could not operate.

Thank you for a great year: Here’s to many more. 

“And in another year everything will be different yet again. It is always like that, and always will be; you are forever standing on the brink, in a place where you cannot see ahead; there is nothing of which to be certain except what lies behind. This should be terrifying, but somehow it is not.”

Penelope Lively