I attended Kalona Days on Saturday, June 18, which was a little bittersweet. I will be leaving my position as News Editor at The News in July.

I am planning to enroll back in school in the Fall of 2023 to pursue my Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, which has always been a significant dream of mine. I am applying to 15 schools across the country (and even to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver) and, while my first choice is the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, my husband Seth and I are prepared to move to wherever I will be attending school.

But as I sat and ate a pork burger from the Limecreek Livewires 4-H club in the KCTC lot on Kalona Days, it hit me just how much I will miss this community after leaving The News.

As long as I’m still in the area, I will definitely still hit up my favorite spots: Golden Delight Bakery, Tuscan Moon, the Kalona General Store and Eatery, the Kalona Brewing Company, the Kalona Farmer’s Market. But it will be different, patronizing these businesses and attending events as just Molly, instead of as Molly the Editor.

I have absolutely loved the past two years of working in Kalona, Riverside, Wellman and Lone Tree. I have met some of the warmest, most interesting people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I’ve enjoyed interviewing them, sometimes over a cup of Kalona Coffee House coffee. I’ve enjoyed capturing them in photographs. I’ve enjoyed attending high school sporting events and parades and visiting classrooms Lone Tree, Hillcrest, Highland and Mid-Prairie.

I’ve enjoyed it all.

Despite living in Iowa City, the members of the communities I’ve covered over the past two years have been nothing but welcoming — you all have made me feel included and were always so kind. I can’t thank you enough for that.

I’ve learned so much during my tenure at The News and will definitely carry these lessons with me as I move on to different adventures. Above all, I’ve learned that everyone has a story — even if they don’t know they have a story to tell, it’s always worth sitting down and listening to others, because it’s guaranteed that they have something interesting and beautiful to say. Being able to uncover these stories and share them with our subscribers has been an honor and something I’ll never forget.

My dream is to be able to write novels and short stories for a living, but there will always be a little bit of Journalist Molly in everything I write. I will carry all the experiences and expertise I gathered at The News into everything I do from here on out.

Thank you to the people of Washington and Johnson counties. Thank you to everyone who ever read one of my articles. And thank you everyone at The News who helped me grow into the journalist, writer and person I am today.