I sat down with the intention of sharing some thoughts and memories that cover the last 10 years of my professional life within the pages of this magazine.
Then, I realized that I’d need more room for that than I have here, and decided to save that for the middle of this issue.
Instead, I want to say thank you.
We’ve told the story of how we wound up here, which literally happened by looking at a map and choosing a spot between Fayetteville and Raleigh.
We walked around Carlie C’s in Four Oaks, listened to the cashier ask about people’s families and knew we had found our new home.
You looked at us a little funny when we said we wanted to start a magazine. It seems folks had heard that a time or two before.
We were nervous when we put our son in Four Oaks Elementary. We had battle after battle with Vance County Schools about how to properly educate a child facing autism, and we were ready for more.
Then, we met David Pearce and Allison Tucker, and all was well.
Four Oaks embraced us as its own, and though a few folks were sad when we took the Four Oaks Journal and transformed it into Johnston Now, we felt your pride.
We don’t sell copies of our magazine. Every dollar this place makes comes from the support of our advertisers, and even as we’ve expanded into the digital space with JNOW Media, we never take that for granted.
Many, many things could have gone wrong for the Capps family in the summer of 2008 when we moved here, but instead, we were welcomed.
Our magazine could have floundered right after it launched in the spring of 2015, but you supported it, and it’s still here.
I have a great deal of personal pride in not relying on the help of others, but the last decade of my life — one filled with joy and accomplishment — can be credited only to the people who helped make all this happen.
Thank you, Johnston County, for everything.
