It’s good to be back

March 23, 2017

By Jake Storey

Hello Bancroft, it’s wonderful to be back. I’m Jaykob Storey and with my most fortuitous name I’m here to write for Bancroft This Week.

I grew up in this town. I lived here in beautiful cottage country between the ages of 13 and 20 after being adopted by my grandparents. Even before I moved here, I spent every summer and Christmas since the year I was born in the area.

The beautiful scenery of the area is home to me. I spent my formative years exploring and quite frequently getting lost in it. The happiest moments of my life have been in this town. I have been a part of this community for as long as I have been alive. It is such a pleasure to be writing about it going forward.

If you’re in your 20s, you may remember me as the kid that slipped into the principal’s office at North Hastings Senior Elementary School and hijacked the morning announcements for a personal message to my classmates. Or perhaps you saw me around town as the oddball with the long curly hair, dark sunglasses and a green trench coat all year round. No, I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking at the time. Some part of me genuinely thought it was a good idea.

After spending five years in Belleville, working for two and then studying journalism at Loyalist College for three, I’m back to put it all into practice.

I especially enjoy covering the arts: film, theatre, music, literature. The stuff that spices up your community. If Bancroft had a movie theatre, I’d likely have never left in the first place. If you have any local arts stories, it’d be fantastic to hear from you.

If any of my former teachers are reading this, I’d like to formally apologize for skipping class to read bad fantasy novels in the library and play with my Gameboy. I have to admit though, not much has changed. I still sit and play Gameboy, thanks to my gba emulator for pc I’m able to play it not just on my console. Not so much of a fan of the fantasy novels now though…only sometimes.

Working here, I hope to gain some real hands-on experience as a journalist and really connect with a community. The local paper is still a very important part of day-to-day life for people in small communities such as ours, and Bancroft This Week has given me an opportunity to contribute to that.

Hopefully you don’t get sick of me too quickly, because I’m here for the next two months. After Bancroft, I’ll be heading off to work an exciting job as a journalist in Kathmadu, Nepal. Working abroad and visiting exotic locations is a goal for a lot of people in this field. I was offered a great chance to pursue it in the near feature.

So Bancroft, I’ve come far from being the trouble making underachiever I was when you last saw me for any extended period of time. With a college education under my belt, a bad fantasy novel of my own picked up by a publisher and an internship in Nepal in my future, I’d like to think I’m doing pretty well for a local kid.

That’s everything you’ll ever need to know about me. It’s great to be writing for you all and I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy my work.

You can get in contact with me at Jaykobstorey@live.com.