By Lauren Young

Staff Writer

While it feels like I only began writing for Eagle Newspapers just yesterday, the past 13 months of reporting for this publication was nothing short of an incredible learning experience to my start in journalism, and I am completely grateful to have worked with the Eagle News staff to deliver quality local news every week.

While I will miss my talented colleagues at Eagle, I’m packing up the c(ah)r and heading to the suburbs of Boston, having recently accepted a position as a multimedia journalist for the Milford Daily News in Milford, Massachusetts. While I’m also moving from the place I called home for four years, I will never forget my time at Eagle Newspapers.

In fact, I still remember the night I found out I was hired as a reporter.

I was sitting in my car after clocking out of a nine-hour shift at Starbucks; shivering with the heat on full blast, my green apron covered in five different milks and caramel sauce sitting in the passenger’s seat. I saw that I had a voicemail from our managing editor (Jen Wing) and, when I called her back, she told me they were offering me the job.

I couldn’t believe it; it was the news I had been waiting to hear for the past year after graduating college, in between working a range of fast food, fine dining and Frappuccino-making jobs. The next year and month of working as a reporter for Eagle Newspapers (my first paid job in journalism out of college) taught me so much about being a better writer, reader, editor, listener and thinker, and I am beyond grateful that I was able to call myself a part of this staff.

Learning from the other writers on the staff has also been tremendously valuable, and I’m thankful for all the inspirational, devoted, hard-working and memorable people I met and interviewed along the way. It has always been my mission to provide quality, local news to our communities, and I hope I was able to deliver on that.

While I am deeply appreciative of all the opportunities and knowledge I was given while working at Eagle Newspapers, I’m (wicked) excited to begin work for the Milford Daily News, where I’ll be covering two towns, a beat, and will be getting behind the camera more often for videos (and we have a podcast too!).

Feel free to follow me to Massachusetts via Twitter where I’ll be posting more videos and visual content in the coming weeks.

Thank to you everyone who has provided encouragement and support to me along the way, and thank you to everyone who continues to be a devoted Eagle News reader — I can only hope another young, curious reporter takes my spot!