A long time coming

Somewhere in next week’s issue of the Town Pages, and I'm not going to tell you where, is a story I wrote 10 years ago this month. It is the first story I ever wrote for this newspaper. Actually, it's the first story I wrote for any newspaper. I strongly recommend you not read it. It is not what the kids these days would call competent.
On the level of things that should never been issued for public consumption I'd rank it somewhere between those first-day performers everyone likes to laugh at on American Idol and Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. I like to think that in the decade since I've progressed at least to the level of contestants on one of those karaoke shows that has been airing over the summer.
I don't mention this story, which I wrote about a new contract for District 196 teachers and nurses on my first day at work in September of 1997, because I think it's somehow a milestone worth recognizing. I don't have a lot of fond memories of that story, beyond the fact it was the start of what has turned into a surprisingly long and mostly happy association with the city of Rosemount. Mostly what I remember is walking into our office for my first day of work having never so much as taken a journalism class and having the guy who owned the paper at the time keep threatening as the day went on to send me to a school board meeting. It’s not that I was diametrically opposed to attending a school board meeting — having never been to one I didn’t know better. But I felt a little sick that day and, you know, really didn’t have any idea what I was doing. The story I ultimately produced might be the most enthusiastic story ever written about what was essentially a straightforward approval of a new contract. I know District 196 has lots of excellent teachers. I’m just not sure I needed to mention that 34 times in the space of three paragraphs.
Like I said, the story's not very good. And while reading the small part of it reprinted this week would not take long, there are definitely better ways to use that time. Go for a walk. Watch some of the exciting new programs premiering now as part of network television's fall season. Read to your children. Just, you know, don't read them the story. Trust me, this is one of those rare instances where a parent reading to a child could actually hamper that child's academic progress.
Mostly, seeing that story pop up again reminds me I've been here for a long freaking time. It's a realization I have from time to time. I had it a few years ago when a group of seventh graders with whom I traveled to southern Minnesota my first year on the job graduated from high school. I had it again more recently when I realized those same students are now going into their senior year of college. I can only imagine how I'll feel when I start writing stories about their kids. Do you think it'd be weird if I started out by mentioning I once played kickball with their dad?
There are people working in this office now who were in middle school in September of 1997.
A lot has changed since I wrote that first story. Roads that dead-ended in corn fields in 1997 now wind through fully developed neighborhoods. Fields that used to be empty are now filled with houses. In some cases, developments have been planned three or four times for the same property.
The city of Rosemount has changed administrators since I've been here, and the Independent School District 196 has hired a new superintendent.
The District 196 School Board has been remarkably stable in the years since I started covering meetings. Five of those original seven members are still on the board. Things are different at city hall, though, where there has been a complete turnover among city council members. I'm starting to worry it's something I said.
In the grand scheme of things, of course, 10 years isn't all that long. In geological terms a decade is nothing. Lots of people have done their jobs longer than 10 years. I should know. I've written stories about them.
Maybe I'll even let you read them.