Home

Allison Plean

Allison Plean's column appears Fridays in the 4 Points arts and entertainment section in the Steamboat Today. Contact her at 871-4204 or e-mail aplean@steamboatpilot.com.

I can still picture my two best friends in my U-Haul's rearview mirror - running down the street crying and waving - when I traded North Carolina for Colorado.

That's how I feel about writing this column.

I am moving again - this time from the Steamboat Pilot & Today's editorial department to the prepress department, where I will be a graphic designer.

Fact is, I love doing the things I write about more than writing about them.

There, I said it.

In my interview for this 4 Points gig, I told city editor Brent Boyer and editor Scott Stanford that being the 4 Points editor was my dream job.

I wasn't lying.

How can you not want to meet fascinating people, work under exhilarating deadlines and learn 100 new things every day?

I learned how to write really fast without looking at my pad. I learned that computer viruses in Microsoft Word can be tormenting and unforgiving. I also learned how cruel people can be when they post anonymous comments on our Web site.

But most importantly, I learned that reporters seem to "high five" more than any other group of people I've ever known. I would say we average about five "high fives" a day.

This job also encouraged me to see my first Strings in the Mountains concert, Fourth of July parade and Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp performance, among the dozens of other wonderful local events I attended.

I am astounded daily at how much talent resides within this little valley. I know we don't have any Smithsonian museums or Broadway streets, but we live in one of the most culturally rich places in the world - and I've been around the world (33 countries total).

I am grateful to every person who opened up to tell me about their life or their passions - even though most of it was off the record. Some "sources" I interviewed inspired me to start painting, while others taught me how to play with fire.

I am thankful for all the people who trusted me with their words. Having a love of words is what attracted me to becoming a writer in the first place.

My poetry teacher in college said you are not a poet until someone calls you a poet. I feel like I wasn't really a writer until I began writing as many as 15 articles a week.

The past year of my life has been challenging, exhausting and exhilarating. I was nervous before every interview I conducted, and I closed my eyes every time I hit the "save" button for the final time.

So my dream job now distills down to part of my beat - the art part.

I will greatly miss 4 Points and my relationships with my sources, but at least I get to keep my great co-workers and grow in new directions.

My biggest pet peeve about this job (besides evil Web site commentators) is when people actually say to me, "There is nothing to do in this town."

Obviously they never read 4 Points.