goodbye for now

by Nicole Na

A week from now, I’ll be squeezed into a car with my partner, our dog and all of our belongings, traveling up 788 miles of the West Coast. It’s with a simultaneously heavy and thrilled heart that I leave Sonoma Land Trust for a fresh start in sparkling, forested Seattle. Today marks the end of my penultimate week in Santa Rosa.

I’m so lucky to have worked here. Sonoma Land Trust is brimming with talented, dedicated, kind and wonderful people whom I’ve come to view as my family and, though I’ll of course keep in touch, I’ll miss them all dearly. The fact that I even became communications coordinator here is serendipitous. As a biology major, I worked for some time as a laboratory technician and phlebotomist before coming across the job posting in March 2015, applying with no formal education in communications or writing. Luckily for me, communications director Sheri Cardo saw my potential through restaurant reviews I’d written for the college newspaper — and she’s been helping me hone my writing and content-generation skills ever since. Thanks to her, I plan to continue my writing career well into the future.

Developing this blog was one of my first projects when I arrived at the Land Trust and I’ve been proud to watch it become part of the fabric of our storytelling. It’s been my pleasure to provide a medium for our stewardship crew to open their hearts and share their profound musings about working so closely with our lands. Of course, while I’ll be in Seattle, the blog will still continue — there are many more stories to tell!
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In my two years here, I’ve been documenting my experiences with the land not just through writing, but through photography as well. Here are some of my favorite photos so that you might see, for just a few moments, how I see Sonoma County.
Thank you for reading — and wish me luck on my new journey!

Nicole Na served as Sonoma Land Trust's communications coordinator (and Mountains + Molehills blogmaster!) from June 2015 to June 2017.