The Last Corner: Home

Sometimes when I struggle to come up with a topic for From the Helm, I'll look back through past columns to see if anything sparks a new idea. I came across one I wrote a couple years ago in which I talked about what led me to start this newspaper. I mentioned past jobs and places I've lived (photo lab tech in San Fran, horse groomer in rural Illinois, executive assistant for an international shipping company in Atlanta, owned a couple businesses, tended bar in a biker bar in Missouri – which drew several colorful comments from some of y'all – to name a few) and stated that I've spent most of my adult life looking for the next great adventure.

I've never been one to sit still for long and I've always chalked it up to a tendency to get bored easily. These past few months, I've spent some time looking at decisions I've made, at what motivates me, what I really want to

do with the rest of my life, and at what really makes me happy. Funny how a little unplanned and unwanted … drama … in your life can spark introspection and make you question things you've always accepted as truth.

One thing I've always accepted as truth is that there's something better waiting around the next corner. I've spent many years and covered many miles searching for that elusive "something better." When I started this paper, my motivation on one level was to combine two things I love – being on the water and writing. On another level, I needed a job in Savannah and this seemed like something that would challenge me for a few years while I figured out where to look next for "something better." Whether that would be sailing around the world and writing from my boat for a living, or running an anonymous little tiki bar on a beach on some far flung Caribbean island, was up for discussion. Even though I was happy here, for a while there was still that nagging little question in the back of my mind asking, "what and where next?"

There have been moments these past few months when I've thought seriously about

loading my dogs and whatever I could carry in my truck and hightailing it south. Hide out at a friend's house in the Keys to lick my wounds and build up the energy to start over again. But for the first time in my life, the idea of the open road in front of me, the thought of seeing what's around the next corner, the notion of new scenery outside my window each morning held absolutely no appeal. In fact, it left me feeling sadness and a sense of loss.

Leave here? Give up the friendships that have become such a vital part of my life? Walk away from the people who've accepted me so wholeheartedly into this community? Leave these waterways, these marshes, these islands? Close up this paper and give up doing something I truly enjoy? For what? I've visited four countries, 27 states, lived in six of those states, and from where I sit now, there's nowhere more beautiful and with more to offer than right here in Coastal Georgia.

I've never had a job as rewarding or that I enjoy as much as I do running this newspaper. More importantly, I've never visited or lived in a location where the people are more friendly, caring, and just plain good-hearted. Over the

past few months, I've received multiple phone calls and emails from so many of you, just checking on me. "Is there anything I can do to help?" "We're all in this together." "I'm here if you need anything." "You have friends here, Amy, and we care about you." I'm at a complete loss for words to express what that means to me. Thank you, each of you.

I've come to the conclusion that it's time I plant my feet in this marsh mud and let roots grow. I've already found the "something better" and it's right here, doing what I do, with all of you.

What's around the next corner? Keeping this paper going, giving back to this community, having fun with all the adventures I get to experience right here, and enjoying everything I've been blessed with. Sometimes it's All About the Water. But sometimes it's about so much more.

Contact me at Amy@WatersideNews.com