Seattle, from Lake Union. Seattle!
The bluest skies I’ve ever seen — some-thing some-thing… And the hills the greenest green — some-thing some-thing…
I can’t be the first to lean on Perry Como to deliver this exact news, but the man had good lyricists and the words are resonating with me as I slowly break some life news to more and more people:
I’m moving to Seattle! Some charitable souls convinced the capable, experienced team at KPLU to hire yours truly to report on youth issues and education policy. It’s a really exciting opportunity to report across platforms — on the radio and on the station’s cool platform for online feature reporting, Quirksee.
When it’s time to leave your home and your loved ones, it’s the hardest thing a boy can ever do…
The move will be bittersweet. Thrilled as I am to tackle a new challenge, I’m parting company — in a physical sense, anyway — with some fantastic people in Indiana. I work with some truly amazing, funny, smart, talented and driven individuals at WFIU & WTIU and I’m blessed to call them my friends. Public media friends, keep a close eye on the work these people are doing. They’re fantastic.
Equally difficult will be letting go of StateImpact Indiana. I often tell people who ask that I feel a sense of paternal ownership over that project — I did help launch the blog two-and-a-half years ago — but of course, it’s not my baby alone. It’s the result of hard work by my closest colleagues at WFIU. It’s the result a talented team NPR who ably shaped the project’s editorial vision and offered training to the project’s reporters that truly changed the trajectory of my career. I cannot thank them enough for trusting me to tackle a challenge so great.
Seattle! Can you see Mt. Rainier, coming out from under the clouds?
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free and wild…
I’m excited to make this move. KPLU has a great digital strategy in place and I love how their work sounds on the air.
On top of that, one of my dear friends out there keeps selling me on Seattle as “Minnesota West.” The parallels are certainly hard to miss — water, pine, lots of Scandanavians and lots of former Vikings winning rings on the Seahawks. But I’m not moving out there for familiar sights, sounds and scents — I’m moving out there for the new ones. It’s time for a new adventure, a new place and a new challenge.
I love you all! See you soon, Emerald City.
Full of hopes and full of fears,
full of laughter, full of tears,
full of dreams to last the years
in Seattle.
Kyle Stokes 