Someone asked me the other day how being a reporter has affected me outside the office, for the good and for the bad. I hadn’t thought about it much ... After all, how does anyone’s job or career affect them outside the work place?

But the question has stayed with me. After all, I’ve been a reporter for nearly 20 years, and that’s a significant amount of time. I spent my first four years as a reporter working for the BCR when it was owned by the Bailey family with Mary Bailey as my publisher and Ted Duffield as my editor. I had one more year after the Shaw family bought the BCR in the late 1970s before I “retired” to become a full-time wife and mom. With our kids’ college bills facing us, I returned to the BCR and reporting full-time in 1998.

For the most part, I like to think my years as a reporter have had a positive impact on my life.