Travelling is not an easy lifestyle, nor is living out of a backpack, but it does come with its perks. 

I have seen extraordinary sights, including an unforgettable sunset while kayaking in the South China Sea, the scale and size of the fjords while trekking in the wilderness at Milford Sound, the Northern Lights hovering over Scotland watching from Dunluce Castle in Northern Ireland.

I have also met extraordinary people; including Olympic athletes, musicians, rock-climbers, mountain bikers and aerial skiers.

I have been lost more times than I can count, drank moonshine, sang sea shanties, ran out of water on a trek in the middle of nowhere, got food posioning more than once and somehow survived. Made lasting friendships in many different countries.

And decided that Australia is definitely the place to call home.

It doesn't matter how many places I have lived, or how often I have moved, coming to a new town is never easy.

I don’t often get sentimental when making a connection with a new area, but I do when my father reminds me of a historic family connection to the Southern Tablelands area.

My paternal great-grandmother was born in Murringo, my grandfather in Boorowa in 1925, and my grandmother, and her siblings, attended St Patrick’s College in Goulburn in the early 1900s. He said I have more than one relative to visit at the Goulburn cemetery.

I look forward to my new post and learning about the local community, buying a pair of Lindner socks, following the rail pass to Goulburn (perhaps by bicycle), and barracking for the Dogs against Taralga.  I'm even looking forward to the snow over the winter.

A mentor and journalist once told me that the local newspaper should represent the real heartbeat of a community. A place to cheer on local enterprise, and share the woes of community life, perhaps discovering the extraordinary along the way. I look forward to representing the Crookwell community as journalist at the Gazette, and adding my voice to yours.