At this time last year, when we were just getting into the flow of producing this weekly newspaper, I started marking time in Fernley by deadlines and meetings, by the rhythm of Friday night football, Wednesday City Council meetings and the Tuesday afternoon deadlines.
Now, with the Fernley Reporter past its first anniversary, Thanksgiving arrives as another mile marker, a pause in the march of minutes, reminding me that persistence itself is worth celebrating.
This isn’t a column about gratitude in the usual sense. I won’t list family, friends, or pumpkin pie. I’m a person who works best in structure, by routine. And what I’ve learned over the past year is that routine is a kind of thanksgiving. Not the holiday, but the act of giving thanks.
Deadlines arrive whether we’re ready or not. Meetings stretch longer than planned. Yet, the rhythm continues. Every Tuesday, hopefully before our 2 p.m. deadline, the Reporter is sent to the press.
Meanwhile, the routine rolls on everywhere else too. School buses make their morning and afternoon loops, traffic backs up at the roundabout and sometimes stops completely on Interstate 80 near USA Parkway.
The good, the bad and the ugly of these routines provide us with continuity. But then there’s the surprises. A meeting agenda that looks routine suddenly sparks a debate. A rainstorm sweeps across the desert.
Surprises are what keep the rhythm from becoming monotony. And that’s what reminds me that persistence isn’t just about repeating the same motions, it’s about adapting when the unexpected shows up.
That’s what I’m celebrating this Thanksgiving. It’s not only a pause to be thankful for the blessings in my life, but to appreciate the routines, the rhythms that make it what it is.
I’m grateful for the deadlines that keep me honest, the traffic that reminds me I’m not alone and the surprises that prove I’m still alive and still capable of changing.
S this year’s I’ll raise a toast not to the turkey, but to the rhythm, and to the deadlines, the detours, the debates and the rainstorms. And as we pause together at this mile marker, I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. May your routines keep you grounded, may your surprises keep you alive and may the rhythm of our community carry us forward into another year.
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