Editorial: Why I Came Back… Again

Note: This is republished from Friday, May 19th's edition of the Mountain Eagle.

After nearly four years of rigorous academic exertion, I proudly walked across the stage on Saturday afternoon inside of SUNY Cobleskill’s Iorio Gymnasium and I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Communications with a 3.87 GPA.

Pictured: Timothy Knight, who has returned to
the Mountain Eagle as its Managing Editor.

Two days later, I officially rejoined the Mountain Eagle as its Managing Editor.

As someone who has been working his way around the local journalistic circuit, including two stints as Editor of the Schoharie News, a summertime internship as Assistant Editor with the Watershed Post, and a previous freelance reporter position with the Mountain Eagle, it seems fairly par for the course that I would accept this job.

However, this time it’s different.

You see, while I have been juggling my two passions of academia and journalism the past few years, my dear friend Matthew Avitabile was always quietly encouraging me on the sidelines while he worked tirelessly to rebuild Middleburgh in the aftermath of Irene’s devastation.

And now that he is working as tirelessly to rebuild the Mountain Eagle at a time when it would be easier to just get out of the newspaper industry, I just couldn’t help myself but want to be involved again.

Although my time at the Mountain Eagle is going to be temporary, as grad school and other opportunities are beckoning, I honestly owe Matthew nothing less than the same measure of encouragement and support that he has showed me over the course of my journalistic career… and what better way to do that than to join him here?