As a journalist and the State College Area School District communications director, I have told thousands of stories. Many have recounted courage and initiative, others resilience, creativity, triumph, and even sorrow. Most of my professional career, in fact, has been devoted to conveying the experiences of others, drawing readers into different worlds, momentarily transporting them from their own. I have felt privileged to be a storyteller, to be entrusted with sharing narratives. You should feel honored as well in your role with your schools or school districts. More on that later, but first, allow me to tell some of my own story, starting in Lincoln, Massachusetts. 
 

From an early age, I was an avid reader, the kid perfectly content to while away a quiet afternoon curled up with a book. Stories fascinated me, the way they could spark my imagination and take me from my Boston suburb and place me in intriguing lands and circumstances. History had the same effect, and in fact, I considered the accounts I soaked up to be an almost infinite collection of riveting tales. Lucky for me, my town had a cozy, well-stocked library that I loved to visit and to this day fondly remember. My affinity for history moved with me to Virginia for my teenage years, but I also discovered newspapers. I saw them as daily portals into the full spectrum of human existence, from the peaks to the depths, and I loved poring through them section by section, each page pulling me into someone else’s life and expanding my knowledge, not to mention blackening my fingers.

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