Exactly three years ago, I sat down to write my very first editor’s note for InMaricopa Magazine. I called it “Welcome home.” 

My first day on the job, I left my North Scottsdale apartment and drove down State Route 347 for the first time. I’d been in Arizona just two years, with one editorship under my belt. I had never been to the city of Maricopa, nor did I realize it was in Pinal County. I didn’t know anyone. 

Three Junes ago, it was the second-hardest editor’s note I’ve ever had to write. 

This one is harder, because it is my last. 

In summer 2023, I wrote of Maricopa, “Safe to say, I’ve finally found my home.” And while my time at InMaricopa has come to a close, those words ring truer than ever. As I write this, my family had dinner at our next-door neighbors’ house for the first time last night. My once-new-built home, a blank canvas, has become a young family’s sanctuary. This is the city where my fiancée and I met, where we went on our first date and where my 4-month-old son will grow up. 

I may be leaving the magazine world in favor of TV news, but I am not leaving Maricopa. It’s a place where you can plant roots. The job or the house may change, but the community is constant. I’ve found that here. 

My three years leading this newsroom have been some of the most important in the publication’s 22-year history, and for me personally, they’ve been indescribably rewarding and action-packed. I wrote our most-read story of all time and won our first investigative and narrative journalism awards. I got to publish the outlet’s 25,000th story and its 30,000th. And I made so many friends along the way, covering stolen valor, government waste and human triumph. 

I hope and believe you will all be at least as kind to our incoming editor, Monica D. Spencer, as you were to me when I took over. She has three and a half years at InMaricopa under her belt, half a year more than me, and is among the journalists I respect and admire most in the Phoenix area. 

Starting this month, for the first time, I’ll both live in Maricopa and read InMaricopa while not working at the magazine. I’m looking forward to what its reimagined future brings. And you may see me contribute local stories in future editions because, like I wrote three whole years ago, I’ve found my home. 

To my readers, thank you for letting me tell your stories. 

We’re plain old neighbors now.