The final call

Nearly three years ago, I arrived in the Valley to work for this newspaper. I came with a cloud of uncertainty around me and with very limited knowledge of the history and contemporary issues of the Imperial Valley.

I’ve grown immensely ever since, but as beneficial this adventure has been, the time for me to move on has come. The upcoming election night will be my last for the Imperial Valley Press.

I’m immensely grateful to my co-workers, current and former, who aided me in adapting to the new setting, and to all the friends and acquaintances who were extremely helpful throughout this time.

As to what is next, I’m hoping to find out myself within the next few weeks, but what I’m more concerned with right now is to close out my time here in the Valley the best way possible and head back home to El Paso to relax and spend time with family and friends for a few weeks.

I want to thank you, our readers, for being involved, providing feedback and asking questions about what we had written. Also, I’m thankful to all of you who provided tips and alerted me to some of the different matters taking place around the Valley that needed our attention.

I want to close out my last column echoing a message that I expressed in the first one. It’s a bit concerning to me when people in the community band into rigid ideological cliques and set themselves stubbornly, even vehemently, against anyone who comes from a different social background or dares to hold a different point of view.

These are challenging times when you have elections that are expected to be very consequential for the Valley. In times like this, it is a healthy exercise to take a step back to re-evaluate what you stand for to ensure your actions match your beliefs.

We can all make mistakes and get carried away, but as long as we have the ability to recognize where we want to go, we should be fine.

This Valley has shown me it has vast potential and great people to succeed, but segmenting ourselves into small groups only makes it harder. I know you can’t get everyone on board with the same ideas, but the potential to move forward is there if people make the effort.

I will miss the Valley (except the summer heat), and I will continue to check back occasionally to see what is happening locally. I wish everyone who has made this adventure possible for me the best moving forward.