Hello, you might have seen me GPSing my way around the county the past couple of weeks. My name is Jessica and I'm the newest reporter at the Advocate. I come to this little town from Medicine Hat, way down in southern Alberta where I was raised.
Hello, you might have seen me GPSing my way around the county the past couple of weeks. My name is Jessica and I'm the newest reporter at the Advocate.
I come to this little town from Medicine Hat, way down in southern Alberta where I was raised. Even though I'm not from Athabasca, moving here feels like a bit of a homecoming for me; although I grew up in this province, I have spent most of my adult life in Nova Scotia and abroad.
When I was 18 and got tired of prairie I packed my bags and flew over to Japan, where I studied Japanese for a year. While there I had some strange experiences (a monkey once stole my pack of homemade ramen and ate it in a tree above me) and some life-shaping ones. At one point I got to interview the leader of a group of women who left their working hubbies back in Fukushima and moved to Kyoto's less radioactive evacuee housing.
When I came back to Canada, I decided I liked interviewing people and enrolled in journalism at a school in Halifax, NS that's tinier than my high school was.
Although I'd never been east past Ottawa, the city looked cool on Google Images, so I bet on the fact that I'd want to stay there for four years. I was right.
A month ago, after a healthy couple of years spent eating garlic fingers and breaking the rules in the Halifax Public Gardens, I graduated and came back to Alberta, older and evidently a little more employable.
When I took this job, I had no idea what happened in Athabasca area. Apparently, everything happens. After just two weeks in this community I'm amazed at the number of events every day and hope that next year I'll have some time to dust off the old flute and join the community band and other activities.
I look forward to meeting the people in this community. If you have any story ideas feel free to send them to [email protected] and if you see me around town, please come say hi.
