Something special from the Editor
By Jacob Venuti
August is over, and September is here! Just a few short months ago, I took over here at The Leland Progress, and let me just say, the amount of love and support I have been shown is nothing short of amazing. I still do not know where I found the extra time to run a newspaper, but it seems to be working out just fine.
Hopefully, now that August is over, most kids are settled in and somewhat becoming acclimated to their new schools, new friends or new grades. Thinking about the first day of school each year for me is something I always like to look back on. Every single year, without a doubt, the night before the first day of school, I hardly slept any. I would lay in bed and toss and turn until around four o’clock in the morning, and then I would just get up and get ready.
Fortunately, I was able to experience most of the same people in my grade each year, but I noticed that every year something changes. As the years go by, we get older, we grow up, we change the way we do different things, and we even find new hobbies.
For myself, I have always enjoyed reading the paper, even if some of the news that was covered was something I had already heard about. There’s something about reading it in print that makes it just a little more real.
My family liked to tease me about reading the paper. I remember one night I was having dinner at Cicero’s. I grabbed a paper, put on my reading glasses, or “clickers,” as I call them, and I read the paper. I was approached by my cousin Zoe, who is a waitress there, and she asked me what time I was bringing my grandkids to eat. Mind you, I am twenty years old with no grandkids, no kids at all for that matter, but we shared a good laugh over her joke.
I’d like to think that the readers reading this could get a good laugh out of that joke. On a more serious note, though, everything changes. The only thing that will not change is the fact that everything will keep changing.
Change is one of life’s few guarantees. In a small Southern town, change often happens one chapter at a time. A new business opens where an old one once stood, a young family moves into a longtime home, or another graduating class leaves to pursue its dreams. Though the scenery may shift and the years continue to pass, the spirit of our community is carried forward by the people who continue to call it home and those who one day choose to return.
There are a number of people that I once was extremely close to that I do not hardly see anymore, we get busier, we become tied down with more responsibilities, we meet new people, but, even after all of that, we are lucky to have been impacted by those who have made a difference in our lives, because, whether we believe it or not, every small interaction has shaped us into the people we are today.
As we enter into this new month of change, let the leaves be your reminder. Even though they change color in the fall and drop in the winter, when spring arrives, so does new growth. The same version of the leaf, but a changed leaf.
One thing is for certain, so long as our lifelong neighbors continue to care for each other, we choose selflessness over selfishness, and we keep the love of our community strong, then the heart of this sweet little town will never change, it’ll just grow in size. So, here’s to another season, another chapter, and another chance to love this little town just a little more than we did yesterday.
