Andrew's Trusty Goodbye

Dear Affton, Shrewsbury and everyone else who has tuned into Affton-Shrewsbury Patch,

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me into your homes, your businesses and your community.

Thank you for talking to me at events or meetings, for sharing your wisdom and opinions.

Thank you for your emails and phone calls and news tips—I couldn’t have covered the news in Affton and Shrewsbury without your help.

Thank you for all the comments, announcements, events, blogs and photos you’ve uploaded. Together we have been building a resource that helps everyone in our community stay informed and get engaged.

Thank you for being so nice to me, the new kid in town poking his nose into everyone’s business.

Today is my last day at Patch. I joined the company in October 2010 and launched our site in December 2010. Now I’m leaving to take the summer for travel—my great passion. Next month I fly out to Peru, and the month after to Hawaii for six weeks of relaxation and contemplation. Then I’m moving to New York City to start the next chapter of my life.

It’s been an intense couple of years, with a lot of long nights and a lot of ups and downs. Patch is a constant, everyday hustle, and it can takeover your life and grind you down sometimes. I’ve covered tons of fun, fascinating stories, but also a few truly difficult and tragic ones. What has made it all worth it, however, has been hearing from you readers that we’ve been making a difference in your lives and your community.

I’m incredibly proud of how Affton-Shrewsbury Patch has grown, and I hope all of you continue to read the site and use its tools to make our town better. I leave Patch still passionate about its mission to bring local journalism and information to our small communities.

Patch will be bringing on a new editor soon to fill my spot. In the meantime, please help my colleagues keep Affton-Shrewsbury Patch great: send pictures, story ideas and news tips to Ryan.Martin@patch.com, and keep posting events, blogs and announcements. It will mean a lot to see Patch flourish even in my absence.

If you want to keep up with me, I co-run a Tumblr exploring menswear and principles of modern style: GentleSwagger.tumblr.com. I also have a sometimes-used Twitter handle @andrewdhudson. I’m going to be working on some writing projects this summer, so keep an eye out for those links.

Thanks for a great couple of years, and have a great summer.

Best,
Andrew Dana Hudson