Column: A New Year Worth Showing Up For?

The new year doesn’t arrive with fireworks for me anymore. It comes quietly, like the first deep breath after a long drive or the moment you turn the key and the engine finally goes still. I’ve learned to trust that quiet. It tells the truth.

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Another year is behind us and if you’re reading this, you made it through. That matters more than we sometimes admit. We live in a culture that rushes past survival and straight into productivity as if simply being here isn’t already an accomplishment. But it is. Especially now.

Last year, I spent a lot of time in hospital rooms and with specialists. I think I now have a specialist for my specialist. Time slows down in those rooms. Conversations get more precise. Choices feel heavier. God’s word rings true like a trumpet!

This year, I began it in one of those rooms, having conversations no one wants to have. Doctors laid out my options, what a life-saving procedure would mean, what it would take from me and what could happen if I chose not to do it at all. There was also another question, quieter but just as heavy: did I even want to show up for another year?

Those moments have a way of stripping life down to its essentials. Not goals. Not plans. Just presence. Just the decision to stay.

A new year is not a clean slate. It’s a continuation. We carry our stories with us, every scar, every win, every unanswered question. I don’t believe in pretending otherwise. What I do believe in is choosing how we carry them forward.

At Davidson Local, we don’t chase perfection. We chase presence. We show up to community events, we sit with grief when a family loses someone too soon and we celebrate the small wins that don’t always make headlines but matter all the same, a student finding their voice, a neighborhood rallying around one of their own, a volunteer saying yes one more time.

We do this without a full-time staff person. We do it with commitment, volunteers and a belief that local news is still worth the effort. Free local news isn’t actually “free.” It has a cost that state-wide efforts have stepped in to support. Still, we need local support to sustain this effort.

This past year reminded me why local journalism still matters. Not because it’s easy or glamorous, it isn’t, but because community is built in the details. In the margins. In the places national or regional stories never reach.

In the coming year, I’ll also be lifting up the work of other investigative journalists through a national press program. It’s an honor that comes with some trepidation. Journalism has never been a solo act and it matters that we recognize and support the people doing hard, necessary work across the country.

I’ve lived enough life to know that the road forward is rarely straight. Mine certainly hasn’t been. There have been years where simply getting up felt like an act of defiance. Years where the body demanded more grace than the world was willing to give. Years where survival itself felt like work.

So as we step into this new year, I’m not asking for grand resolutions. I’m asking for something quieter and braver.

Pay attention.
Be kind without keeping score.
Ask better questions.
Listen longer than is comfortable.
Support the places and people who show up when it would be easier not to.

Read local. Shop local. Speak up. Check on your neighbors. Tell your story even if your voice shakes.

This year will bring hard news. It always does. But it will also bring moments worth holding onto. Our job, yours and mine, is to notice them, name them and protect them.

The new year doesn’t need us to be new people. It just needs us to decide, sometimes daily, to show up.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for staying.

We’ll see you on the road ahead.