My, how time flies when you’re having a blast!

Can you believe we’ve just celebrated our first year metaphorically riding around together in the “Driver’s Seat?” My first column was published on November 10, 2010, and I think we can honestly agree:  What a long, strange (car) trip it’s been!

Looking back from day one, I believe I’ve accomplished a lot of what I set out to do, and then some. We started plenty of town-wide discussions, got people participating and thinking about ways we were connected, and most of all tried something that hadn’t really been done before.

Even just for me, writing an opinion column was something I had never done before, and I am thankful I’ve had the opportunity to take this kind of personal risk. It’s not easy writing some of what I’ve written over the past 12 months, and I’m grateful that many of you have told me you’ve appreciated the way I put myself out there—sometimes revealing secrets, sometimes taking heat for my opinions, but always—always—signing my name to it.

I had to, since the first column was called “No Longer Anonymous,” and that was the pledge I’d made to you, to my kids and to myself.

In the last year I’ve covered a roller coaster of topics, some of which have been controversial, occasionally inspiring vehement disagreement between readers who comment and sometimes eliciting pointed attack in my direction. I’ve learned about simultaneously not taking things that people say personally and also doing personal introspection after-the-fact to examine how other people’s opinions play on me.

I’ve tried to hew to the original goals of the column. The first was to open up discussion about topics either that don’t get debated openly very often, or that deserve a deeper look. Whether it was writing on issues like the town budget, guns in the house, or putting a face on unemployment, I totally went there.

I also wanted to try to be revelatory in order for people to find a universal, common experience. Whether it was about reflecting on how fast my kids are growing up, sharing the experience of paddle boarding for the first time, admitting in print that I have a chin hair or writing about bathroom habits, I always hoped at least a few of you would read the column and say, “It’s great to know someone else out there feels just like I do!”

And the result? In the ill-fated words of Sally Field, some of you like me, you really like me!

Others of you, hmmm, maybe not so much.

But that’s okay, especially when the column has on occasion helped me accomplish a third goal I set:  to shine a light on ways we can be united in this community, and help each other, when it matters most. Whether it was helping a young mom get a needed bone marrow transplant (and taking part in getting other people life saving matches as well), writing about autism awareness and special needs inclusion, or teaching people about heart health—and the heroics of Wilton’s first responders—by telling one woman’s death-defying story…I tried to put the column to the best use possible.

I hope you’ll agree that after 95 or so “From the Driver’s Seat” columns, sometimes it’s been entertaining, sometimes it’s been educational, and sometimes it’s been infuriating (for some). But no matter what, I hope it’s never been dull.

I have to make a special mention of my children and especially my husband, who graciously allow me to open up our lives for material and introspection. As readers, you all have a choice about whether you get into my car for the drive we take each week, but my family, for the most part, has let me steer without once asking me to pull over or change direction, and for that I’m forever indebted.

That said, I’m going to take a couple days off for the coming Thanksgiving holiday, and enjoy a little down time—reducing my carbon footprint, and park the car in the garage. Everybody needs to fill up the tank now and again, so that’s what the next seven days will be.

I wish you all a wonderful, fulfilling Thanksgiving with those you love, and I hope see you next Monday!