We pause for a moment as our hero reaches four

Four years doesn't even seem possible.

Yet there it is. I have been with the Columbia Basin Herald as long as I was in college, as of Saturday, Nov. 3.

Longer, if you factor in the lack of months-long summer vacations in the workworld, a loss I'm still slightly bitter about and still working overtime to come up with a solution to, although so far the only plausible answer which keeps coming to my mind is "Room full of monkeys."

In those four years, I have seen a lot of changes - to the Columbia Basin, to the Herald newsroom and to myself.

They haven't always been the changes I've longed to see - I am still looking around for my bevy of supermodel beauties vying for my affections - but in the Weaver family, we try very hard to pause often and give ourselves credit for our accomplishments up to this point we've reached.

Four years ago, then-Herald editor Mary Powell hired a nervous young reporter just out of school to cover the business and agriculture beat.

In the time since then, that nervous young reporter graduated into a still nervous but slightly more confident, slightly older reporter who still covers the business and agriculture beat, as well as whatever else he can get his hands on in the arts and features world, or whatever else comes his way.

I haven't lasted in this job because I'm alone. (Although I am single - and the entire Basin rolls its eyes and mouths the oft-repeated words along with me - and looking.)

There's been the support of my friends, co-workers and colleagues in the newspaper office, those who are at this very moment still working alongside me as I type these words, and those who have moved along to other endeavors. Their presence has been a blessing, both as I work and in helping me remember there is life outside of work as well.

Speaking of outside of work, there are the friends who know me as more than a newspaper reporter and who have taken the time to swing through Moses Lake, be it to visit me or because I'm a convenient stop on the way to elsewhere. Or the people who send calls and e-mails to get a current update on all things Weaver:

"Hey, Matthew! How's the supermodel hunt coming?"

And there's my family, always willing to listen to the stuff that made it a bad day and remind me to focus more on the stuff that makes it a good day. They're lifesavers, pure and simple.

And I couldn't have lasted this long without the cooperation of the community the newspaper serves. From day one, this has been a partnership with each person I interview, in effort to make sure information is conveyed in as accurate and interesting a manner as is possible.

While I have sometimes been all too aware of my responsibilities, I often wonder how many people stopped and thought about the fact they were working alongside an impressionable young reporter in his formative years, and how many people didn't, but have simply, seamlessly made four years an overall enjoyable experience.

I shall continue to do my best, but I wanted to pause, reflect, and thank you, readers.

We've reached this point together.