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Carolyn Reid
By Carolyn Reid
What few people know about me is that I actually tried for a position at the Kentucky Post way back when. It was a keyboarding position, I admit, but my hope was to get experience in newswriting.
I have often wished I had taken a different turn at that time, had gone into journalism as a major and a career, and had come back home to carry it on at some point.
I got the chance to fulfill the last part of the dream in 2018 when Keith Smith, knowing I had retired from teaching and knowing I love to write, invited me to come on board at the Falmouth Outlook to work as a stringer and to proof copy.
In 2021, he asked Scott Collins and me if one of us would take over as editor. Scott had been at the paper quite a bit longer, and I expected him to jump. He declined. “That would take the fun out of it,” I remember him responding.
I decided to jump in to see what I could do.
The wee hours of that first Tuesday morning after my first paper was put to bed — at 7 p.m., which is getting pretty darned close to my bedtime; the struggle was real, as they say — I woke with a dread I still cannot describe. Did I send last week’s paper by mistake? Did I offend so-and-so with what I allowed to go through? Was I right when I stated whatever it was I stated?
At that point, I decided I had likely made a mistake, but I was in. How likely was it Scott was right and the fun was gone?
Within a couple of papers, I found the fun was just starting. I was getting stories from all over, and readers were encouraging, patient and supportive. So supportive.
That has lasted, and I am grateful.
While I am stepping away from the editor’s seat, I am sticking around for stories. I will cover council, some county, some fun stories and whatever the new boss asks me, to a degree. He seems to think he is getting off without doing stories. Nope.
So why am I shifting gears if I am not leaving entirely?
I still feel a call to work with the city and the county. I grew up here, yes, but I have come to know the political scene quite well, and that takes a while, no matter where you grew up; but I am also called to work with Brian at our church.
I am a core member of a team that works with ReachOut, as we call it at Crossroads, and my work within that core team is editing ReachOut news. What else would it be?
Along with that, I am working with people who have experience to bring some salt and light to our own community. A friend and I go to Cincinnati next week to sit down with someone who worked to make a vision into a reality and we want to find out how that happened and if that would be a possibility for our home, as well.
Add to that camp work (all are invited to woman camp, man camp, vet camp… I can share the list if you would like) and other church involvement as well as a new grandson, my aunt moving into town and just day-to-day responsibilities that have been pushed aside for a while, and you will see I am far from retiring!
I will (and do) miss the editor’s seat, but life will allow only so much. I am being pulled for reasons I am not sure of yet, and that is OK. Life is an adventure. I am glad to say the adventuring is still happening, even at my age!
Thanks to everyone — the staff here who make work a blast, the readers, and the critics, the involved in all ways — for your love and support. The paper will continue to get better because of those who are at the helm.