What, can it be true?

It is already 2024? How did that happen?

Didn’t 2023 go by really fast? It sure seems like it to me, anyway.

Of course, as we get older, the months and the years just seem to whip by. When you are a kid, the school year seems to drag on forever, and summer will never come. When you are old, the whole year goes by in a flash.

So, before 2024 starts whipping by in a flash, and before 2023 quickly becomes a distant memory, here are some of my personal reflections as I look back, and try to take a sneak peek ahead.

The year of 2023 had its ups and downs, as do most years, I suppose.

I had a bad hip for the first half of the year, and spent the last half recovering from getting a new hip installed. Both of those things slowed me down a bit.

But not so much that I didn’t do a lot of things I wanted to do. Sometimes painfully, and sometimes against doctor’s orders.

So, my personal New Year’s resolutions involve doing more camping, hiking, kayaking and golfing in 2024 than I did this past year. That shouldn’t be too hard to do, as I didn’t do much of that last year.

It will be tough to receive more recognition than last year, as I celebrated 50 years in the newspaper business, received the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce’s Community Service Award, and celebrated 50 years of marriage to my wonderful wife, Pam.

But 2024 is actually off to a great start, award-wise, as the Faribault County Register was named the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year Award recipient for 2024.

To tell the truth, I appreciate getting this award much more than the individual one I received in 2023. Why? Because it is an honor for the entire staff at the Register, and they all deserve it.

Unless you have been in this crazy business, you may not understand the amount of work which goes into it. And all of it done under some really crazy deadline pressure.

Someone congratulated me this past week on hearing the Register was named the Business of the Year. I told him thanks, but added it is not just me, it is truly a group effort to do what we do at the Register – and to do it as well as we do. (We won a bunch of awards in the Minnesota Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest again this year, but more on that in the next couple of weeks.)

Then the person I was talking to added that he was just glad that we are still here. I am not sure if he meant he was glad that our current staff (including me) was still here, or if he meant he was glad that the newspaper itself was still here.

But I suspect it was the latter.

I’m glad too. There is no doubt that newspapers have been struggling lately. Many did not survive the COVID pandemic, when things were shut down. We struggled through that, as well.

I predict newspapers will continue to struggle some in 2024, but that many will keep on keeping their readers informed of what is going on in their communities.

It is always a shame when a newspaper does cease to exist.

Like most editors I feel that the most important thing we do is tell people what is going on in their communities, and what their local governmental bodies are doing. Without newspapers, folks would have to rely on rumor, coffee shop gossip, and whatever they read on Facebook, which may or may not be true, and is generally someone’s personal take on something.

We try and keep our personal opinions out of our stories – using personal columns like this one to express our personal thoughts.

But social media is pretty much open for anyone to say whatever they want. That’s fine, to a point, but hopefully that is not the only place people get their “news” from.

So, as 2024 revs up and starts to whip by at break neck speed and it is suddenly time for Christmas again, we will do our best to tell you what is going on in Faribault County, each and every week during this year of 2024.

That is my, and the whole Register staff’s, real New Year’s resolution.

We also all hope that 2024 is a good year for everyone. But good or bad news, we will keep you informed of how things are in Faribault County in 2024.

‘Cause that is what we do.