My column is winding down, but I still want to hear from you | Home With Tess

If you regularly read my column Home With Tess, you may have noticed my name has been absent as of late.

No, it’s not because I’ve won my battle with the squirrels or have become such a well-adjusted parent that I’ve run out of things to write about.

Instead, I’ve been focused on stepping into a new role at the Akron Beacon Journal as the regional opinion and community engagement editor.

This is such an exciting step in my career, and I’m thrilled to take on a role that allows me to get to know people on a deeper level while digging my heels into the problems that challenge our community the most.

I lived just outside Summit County most of my life until I went to Kent State University, where I interned at the Beacon Journal and became a reporter at 20 years old.

That experience was both invaluable and life-changing. I cried with people who lost family members to unfathomable tragedy, lost themselves to addiction; I reveled with people who experienced recovery, successes and at times what can only be described as miracles. I continuously met people who experienced hardships, yet kept pushing for a better day.

I may have not grown up in Akron in the traditional sense, but I did in the sense that Akron is where I learned about life.

Being here has given me so much, and I’m excited for the chance to give something back. So, my words will be moving out of Features and into Opinion as part of the Beacon Journal’s editorial board .

But my opinion is just one of many I hope to hare. I’m looking to include a variety of diverse voices and opinions of community members from all across the region on BeaconJournal.com and in the print Opinion section – voices that create a rich dialogue to ultimately move our community forward in an equitable way.

While it is easy to get discouraged with the current state of politics, it's important to remember we can both create and see the biggest changes when we work to make them locally. And everyone deserves to have a say and feel heard.

So, I hope you take the opportunity to speak your mind − whether it’s about injustices you’ve witnessed, great things you’ve seen, questions that need answers or potential solutions, I want to hear from you. You can email your thoughts directly to me at tbennett@gannett, along with any questions, story ideas, suggestions on writers, or just to say hi.

It is my goal to turn the Opinion section into a forum that more accurately reflects the people and issues in our community and steers the region toward a better tomorrow, just as I’ve seen so many people pushing for in my years as a journalist. I see this role not as a solo endeavor, but as a collaboration with every one of you.

I will dearly miss my home column, although I hope to pop in every now and again with updates. It admittedly feels strange to write “if you regularly read my columns,” because to have any sort of regular audience feels like a dream. Thank you, from the very bottom of my heart, to anyone who has ever read or shared my stories or reached out to me. It is truly such an honor to have been a part of your life in any small way, and I hope to remain part of it in my new role.

Now, enough about me. What’s on your mind?

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: My column is winding down, but I still want to hear from you | Home With Tess