Michele Taylor
Caledonia Courier
Reporters have this recurring theme; pile what little of your life you can fit in your car and head for new adventures. Well, ten years in the chill, dark claws of Yellowknife’s Arctic winters had my feet itching to explore new places so I did just that, packed up the car and headed to one of the warmest places I could find in Canada – Fort St. James, B.C.
Honestly, I am a northern girl at heart and northern B.C., always seems to pull me back here. The area and its people is exactly the kind of community I am used to experiencing in the Northwest Territories. There is this network that happens when you live in some of the coldest, most remote places in Canada; people find ways to keep warm in the dark cold of winter and they know how to take care of one another.
I’ve already been asked a number of times, “Are you living in Fort St. James?”
You bet. I’m here, and from what I’ve already been fortunate enough to experience, Fort St. James has that same sense of community, that network that holds you all together.
I am a mother of three lovely girls and a grand mother of two, so I am interested in healthcare, education and community issues. I am also a writer, photographer and artist - with a tiny speckling of musical ‘talent’ thrown in for good measure - so I am interested in the arts scene in the communities.
I spent the first seventeen years of my life growing up and being educated in British Columbia before heading to Alberta for 17 years and then up to the North. I have lived from the north end of Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert and in-between, so it’s somewhat of a homecoming for me being in northern B.C.
I am working on my third stage of a (now) lifelong news and media on-the-job training program. I started out as a photo editor in the Yellowknife newsroom back in 2005; then moved to editorial production, putting all the pages together for four of the seven publications produced at NNSL. Now, I am in my third and most interesting stage of training; reporting on the communities in northern B.C.
I have already had lots of positive interactions with the people, businesses and municipal agents here in Fort St. James and I’m looking forward to many more.
If you can’t find me behind the lens of my camera taking photos you can always find me at the virtual office. Don’t be a stranger, if you see me stop me for a chat or e-mail me and let’s do coffee. I’m eager to get to know, hear your stories and share them with the community; I’m looking forward to the chance to talk to the people here in the District.
newsroom@caledoniacouriercom