I think I’m obsessed with new beginnings.

But to be fair - I think most of us are.

Humankind’s obsession with beginnings is clear in how we stay up until the deepest of night on New Year’s Eve, just so we can celebrate a fresh, new start.

It is clear that we love new beginnings, based on how generations of sappy movie-lovers still curl up on the couch, ice cream in hand, for a Hallmark film that depicts a young woman “starting fresh” in some endearingly rural town.

 We prove that we love a new beginning, based on humankind’s gentle escapism fantasies: we daydream about running away to some island, a new city, or a foreign country, and leaving behind our old lives for something new.

We are all obsessed with new beginnings.

I think that is, in part, why I am so excited about this paper you are currently holding in your hands: it is the epitome of a new beginning.

Not only that, but this modest little community paper is the seed of a great, exciting future; it is the promise of good things to come.

Several months ago, my publisher - Mark Pettus - announced that he was looking into opening a brand-new paper in the Bradfordville area of Leon County.

There wasn’t a paper currently dedicated to Bradfordville and its people.

Part of the job of local news-folk is to find a place not being properly served, and set to work serving it; everyone deserves news from their own communities, after all.

Brainstorming, planning, and lots of work followed that announcement…and now we are here, a finished product before you.

Fresh starts and new beginnings are far from easy (even if they are appealing), and to get here, we had to find a staff writer who was fluent in Tallahassee, and Bradfordville itself.

Enter Cristi McKee.

While I am a Tallahassee native (born right there in Capital Regional Medical Center, before the name change), my stomping-grounds are south and west Leon (that’s where all my folks are), and so I knew we would need someone with the right personality to help carry this project, but also the working knowledge of Bradfordville’s news and needs.

Cristi is the perfect fit.

She took to this project like a duck takes to water - it wasn’t just a perfect fit, it was a natural one.

While reading through this inaugural issue of The Bradfordville Bugle, you will see her excellence and experience shine through with each story.

Making sure Bradfordville was at the heart of this paper was one of my team’s biggest priorities.

I firmly believe that every great community deserves an equally great newspaper - and while I hope to be as great as all our readers, I will submit myself to some humility there.

This paper, produced monthly, will offer a neatly-bundled look into the heart of Bradfordville: its people, its businesses, its politics, its needs and wants, and its hot-topics.

As Cristi went about her rounds, gathering these stories, she made connections and heard from locals who expressed excitement at the focus this paper will bring to Bradfordville - and that means we have a heavy responsibility on our shoulders.

It means we have some big expectations to live up to, and I intend to meet those expectations and then exceed them.

Being a young person in the newspaper industry means I get a lot of, “but isn’t that career field dying?” questions from strangers or acquaintances (all my friends and family know better than to ask that), and The Bradfordville Bugle is proof that no....the newspaper industry is far from fizzling.

We are still here. We are still growing. We are still embarking on new voyages, making new beginnings, offering new products.

What is keeping us going? The same thing that has always kept newspapers going: communities.

The importance of community, of local folks, of hometown connections, and of relevant news from home is still just as important now as it was 100 years ago.

So, I am excited to be putting forth this paper - as is the rest of my team.

We are bringing Bradfordville’s news back home.

Thank you, for being here with us on this new adventurous beginning.