Old Man - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

So it begins: a month-long celebration and reflection of the 20th anniversary of my first day with The Citizen. In other words, I’ve given the last two decades of my life to this outfit and to mark this milestone, it’s time to dissect what it’s all meant.

 

My first day on the job was Monday, Oct. 2 - exactly 20 years, to the day, before this issue is officially published. On the front page was a picture of Phil Beard of the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority - a person I e-mailed this very week. My first front page story was a round-up of municipal election candidates. We are again in an election year. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

Taking a step even further back, my journey here started a few months earlier. Many people likely know this story but, if you don’t, here it is. Studying journalism at Humber College, I met and befriended Sarah Mann. There, we would become co-editors of the entertainment section of the school’s newspaper and work together closely on our final magazine project. 

 

Sarah is known to this community, of course, and had worked for The Citizen. She was a reporter with The Goderich Signal-Star when she was killed in a car crash on July 4, 2006.

 

I came to Huron County for the first time for Sarah’s funeral. I met a number of people, including my future wife and in-laws, as well as Bonnie Gropp, the editor of The Citizen at the time. Bonnie said she was looking for a new reporter, between Sarah’s death and being robbed at gunpoint at my retail job about six months earlier, I warmed up to the idea of a fresh start and asked her about applying.

 

I nervously interviewed with Bonnie and Publisher Keith Roulston - actually in the very office I’m sitting in writing this - after driving right through the village my first time, sure I was considering working in a bigger town and was, eventually, offered the position. I lived in Goderich at first and didn’t know many folks. I would go to Paddy O’Neil’s on weeknights, sitting at the bar to watch baseball (it was the playoffs, after all) and have a Guinness or two, source many of my meals from the local Chinese take-out and access the internet at the library, which was just one street over.

 

A few years ago, we had a retirement dinner for Keith and there he described me as being “as green as the grass” when I started. Not only was I new to the job, but I was new to the community. I’ll always be thankful to him and Bonnie for taking a chance on me and putting their time and effort into me because I’m sure I didn’t seem like a long-term prospect for the newspaper. With barely a toe planted in Huron County, taking trips back to Toronto or Pickering whenever I could manage them, I’m sure they thought it was only a matter of time until I handed in my two-weeks’ notice.

 

And yet, that wasn’t the case. I learned, I became comfortable with not only the job but with the community, I met more people and developed as a writer, reporter and person. It wasn’t always perfect and I made mistakes, but I learned from them and improved over time.

 

Just recently I was with my baseball friends from the Pickering Pirates and they reflected on that time - that both they and I were sure I would return to the GTA after I gained some experience in Huron County. Clearly that was not how things played out and I have found a home and a reason for being here, but, at the time, it was hard to leave everyone behind.

 

If asked then, I wouldn’t have been able to predict that I’d be with The Citizen 20 years later. So much has happened over that time, both inside and outside of this office and it all started with that interview. Back next week.