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Planet Pop: The End

By the time you read this, I’ll already be gone, which makes saying goodbye a little stranger than usual, I suppose.

I’ve never liked saying goodbye. As a child, I took great delight in visiting people, places and things, and, when the inevitable time came to go home, I would scream and cry, yelling things like, “It’ll never be this way again!” as my parents wondered what exactly they had done to raise such a strange and troubled child. Now, after nearly two years of visiting the people, places and things within the North Country, the time has come to say goodbye to all of you, the readers who have made this time in my life rewarding and memorable.

I have accepted a job as the University of Scranton’s director of advancement communications. While I look forward to beginning this new chapter in my life, I am sad to see this chapter come to an end as it has brought me a great deal of joy and fulfillment.

To put it another way, if it were socially acceptable for a 36-year-old man to scream and cry in public, you would all clearly see how I feel, as I am still well aware it will never be this way again.

I will miss it here. I will miss helping to spread the word about the great things happening in the Tri-Lakes community. I will miss the spectacular sunrises I bore witness to on my way to the office. I will miss covering the thriving arts and entertainment scene within the Blue Line. I will miss the interesting people, places and things I encountered each day on the job, and I will miss telling their stories to the best of my abilities.

I would like to publicly thank Cathy Moore, Peter Crowley, Brittany Proulx, Andy Flynn, Morgan Ryan, Chris Knight, Shaun Kittle, Matt Turner, Lou Reuter, Justin Levine, Antonio Olivero and the rest of the staff at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Lake Placid News for everything over the past few years. It has been a pleasure working with all of you, and I will miss being a part of the “news crew,” as Lou is fond of calling us, more than I can express within the limits of this publication.

I would also like to publicly thank you, the readers of this column. Thank you for accompanying me on this topsy-turvy journey through the pop culture landscape. It’s been the highlight of my time here, and it would not have been possible without you. Thanks for checking in each week and for tolerating my rambles – I hope you had as much fun reading them as I had writing them.

When my wife and I moved up here nearly two years ago, we didn’t know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised when the people we met were some of the friendliest, most welcoming folks either of us had ever encountered. From the moment we first moved into the Park, we were given advice and assistance by just about everyone who crossed our paths, and it was refreshing to receive warm, inviting smiles from strangers in the street, a natural resource the world outside the Blue Line sorely lacks. Thank you for being so kind and for making us feel at home. Should you ever find yourself in the Scranton area, we would be happy to return the favor.

As a parting gift, I leave you with the words of Jack Kerouac, whose “On the Road” should be required reading for the human race:

“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? It’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”

Thanks for the memories. I’ll think of you as I lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.

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