New year brings new hope

Yes, I know I'm a little late. It's Jan. 2 (happy birthday, Mom), but I'm writing a New Year's blog.

2006 was, in many ways, a monumental year for me. Yet, the arrival of 2007 brings renewed hope. I really and truly believe this year could be my best one yet. Before we get into that, let's take a look back on the year that was.

Last year brought some major milestones in my life. Elizabeth and I ventured out into the great unknown, moving away from Ruston and buying our first house. Maybe it wasn't the great unknown for Elizabeth (she grew up in Pineville, which is a stone's throw over the Red River from our house in Alexandria), but it was for me. For the majority of my life, I lived in the small city known as Ruston, La. In fact, I'd spent the past dozen years there -- finishing up junior high, graduating high school and becoming my own man in college at Louisiana Tech University. Ruston, for all its faults, was home.

But there comes a time when a man needs to spread his wings and move away from home. 2006 became that time for me. So I took a job at The Town Talk, a paper owned by Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in America, as an assistant metro editor -- putting my career dreams in the sports world on hold in order to better my family's future. And I haven't regretted that decision for a second.

Elizabeth and I purchased a cute cottage home in the Garden District near downtown Alexandria. And while it's a "cottage home," it's by no means tiny. We are very proud of our rather large home that features 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a large living room, separate dining room and a den/computer room that is quickly becoming my own shrine to my college alma mater -- painted my favorite color, "Tech Blue" -- while also housing our computer desk, my workout machine and all my video games.

While the house was "move-in ready," my interior-designer-at-heart wife set about making the house we purchased our home. We set about painting -- the aforementioned "Tech Blue" room, the kitchen, dining room and living room. We've purchased a few amenities -- new living room furniture (a couch, loveseat and lounge chair), matching dining room set (formal dining table, which two extra sections, to seat anywhere from 4-8 people comfortably, and Elizabeth's favorite asset of the house, a new china cabinet), and we (my father-in-law and me) just put in a new chandelier in the dining room that I purchased for Elizabeth for Christmas.

We've still got a lot of work to do in transforming our home. The guest bedroom isn't fully set up yet, although we have had a few guests stay. And the third bedroom, which for now is serving as our storage room, still needs to be painted and turned into the shrine to Curious George that it will become. But we're making progress. And that's what life's about.

Outside of the home, Elizabeth and I have found another home -- a church home at Donahue Family Church in Pineville. While, admittedly, we had inside connections with Elizabeth's best friend, Michelle Neal, being one of the youth ministers (along with her husband, Jeremy), we've really taken to this new church. Elizabeth and I jumped right in helping with the youth group -- serving as adult leaders at the Wednesday night service and also teaching a group of 7th and 8th graders on Sunday morning. Recently, I've added the duty of church basketball coach. In college, I had hopes to be a youth leader, but things didn't work out for me. Now, I'm getting to live some of those past dreams.

While 2006 was a transition year for our family, I firmly believe 2007 is going to be even better. Two weeks ago, Elizabeth started a new job at The Town Talk. Today, I received word that next week I will begin my own new job at The Town Talk -- as assistant sports editor/preps. I can't put into words how excited I am to get back on the sports side of the news business. I'll be back in my element -- helping to dictate the coverage of our local high schools, along with prep writer Patrick Johnson, and helping the sports editor, Randy Benson, direct our overall coverage at The Town Talk. This is just validation in my eyes that I made the right decision coming to The Town Talk. My previous boss said he was shocked when he heard I was living to become an assistant metro editor. But it was all part of my plan to get a shot in a sports department. Now, just eight months later, I'm getting that chance and am well along on the path that I wanted to take in my journalism career.

What this next step means is that I'll be moving to a night schedule. On paper, that's not ideal. Except Elizabeth's job is moving to nights, as well. We won't be on the exact same schedule -- my shift will begin and end about 3 hours earlier than hers -- but we'll be working the same days (Tuesday through Saturday) and we'll have our mornings (until about 2) off together.

Personally and professionally, I have high hopes for the coming year. Hopefully, it'll be the best one yet.