When I was a kid, I always felt time was crawling.
I remember walking up the steps of Little Rock Central High School my freshman year thinking the four years I would spend there would be a lifetime.
These days, four years seems like it could come by the end of the week.
As we enter the second half of 2023, the events of the past 365-plus days feel like they should have played out over three or four years instead of one.
We passed a big milestone a couple weeks ago. On June 6, 2022, my wife and I sat in wait as our infant received open heart surgery to fix a ventricular septal defect — a hole in the wall of her heart that was allowing blood to leak through her heart, making it have to work twice as hard to supply blood to her little body.
She wasn’t even a year old at the time of the surgery, and she handled it like a champ. In just a few months, she shot from the negative percentile in weight to nearly the 60th percentile.
She’s progressed to nearly all solid foods and will eat a whole dill pickle like a chipmunk trying to save up for winter.
She’s talking, climbing stairs and is the most accurate thrower of all the girls in the house, not to mention being incredibly smart and clever. Most of her speech is still gibberish, but she comprehends full sentences and can follow increasingly complex instructions.
As recent as it was, sitting with her in the St. Louis hospital last year seems like a lifetime ago.
Another lifetime ago feeling creeps up when I think about buying the paper.
I am approaching my 10th year with the Cassville Democrat
and halfway through my first year of ownership with my wife by my side.
With all we have already done and how things have progressed, it feels like we have owned the paper for years.
As we look to the second half of summer, I’m excited to hopefully take things a bit slower and enjoy as much time as possible with my girls and their mom.
The past few years, we had an above-ground pool in the backyard, but an unrepairable hole in the bottom forced us to finally scrap it.
This year, having spring for a membership to the Cassville Area YMCA, we aim to utilize the Aquatic Center much more than years previous. The 8-yearold is already pressing me today for when we will go after the paper is out and which zone we will get to swim in with dad there.
As fast as time flies, I hope everyone has the opportunity this summer to take a minute and slow things down. Being a holiday week, we were asked to send the paper a day early, so as I write this on July 3, I think of July 4 being the first day this year I won’t actually be in the office.
We are going as a family to a couple events, and we are enjoying being able to cover events for the paper but also just enjoy them as community members.
That’s my plan for Independence Day — hold my family tight as we celebrate our freedom and ability to do what we love day in and day out.
Kyle Troutman has served as the editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014. In 2017, he was named William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers, and in 2022, he won a Golden Dozen Award from ISWINE. He may be reached at 417-847 2610 or ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com.
“She wasn’t even a year old at the time of the surgery, and she handled it like a champ. In just a few months, she shot from the negative percentile in weight to nearly the 60th percentile. She’s progressed to nearly all solid foods and will eat a whole dill pickle like a chipmunk trying to save up for winter.”
