Starting off

Talk about equal opportunity.

On my first day at AnnArbor.com, I walked into a room that looked nothing like a newsroom (by design) and found my seat in a sports department that looked nothing like a sports department.

I had all of two hours of training on the software we would write in and enough Apple store training classes to know what I was doing with a flip camera and an editing program.

I had 17 years of reporting experience to fall back on, but I quickly discovered something unique.

On my first day, pretty much everyone else knew just as much as I did.

For better or for worse, we were all equals. In it together. Come what may.

Sink or swim.

My first week's worth of assignments have been pretty basic. An interview with a college football coach. Covering a local golf tournament. Interviewing Michigan basketball players. Writing stories.

Our site launched four days ago. We made it through step one.

For better for worse. Come what may. Sink or swim.

We were all in it together.

But blocks away, my friends and colleagues I had left behind were living through Black Thursday. The day we all had dreaded for months was upon our community - both inside and outside of the paper's walls.

I couldn't bare to drive into work that day. I wrote from home, finishing up a story and a freelance project. Photos and Facebook updates alerted me to what was happening and who had drank how much.

There were parties and after-parties - a wake for a newspaper that had just been confirmed dead. I thought of my friends, but left the day to them, unsure what I would say if I saw them.

There were T-shirts that read, "No News is Bad News." So true.

Now, four days after the final edition ran off the presses, our new journalism venture continues to find its way.

There are people who like us and those who curse us. Those willing to try us and those who will go their separate ways.

But we're all in it together. For better or for worse. Come what may. Sink or swim.