When I first moved to Columbia to accept this job, I honestly had no idea what to expect. The extent of my knowledge about Columbia was the sign in Hattiesburg over I-59 that says “Columbia that way.”
I had never really given it much thought when I lived in Hattiesburg during my college years. Looking back, I met people from all over the state at Southern Miss, but I cannot recall one person ever being from Columbia.
It was easy enough to gather that it was a small town when I first arrived for an interview, but hearing the way people talked about Columbia and how happy they were to be a part of this little, South Mississippi community was strange to me.
Growing up in a military family and moving around a lot when I was younger, I never got tied to a community. When we did settle down in Slidell, La., after my dad retired, there never was a sense of community pride. Maybe it was because Slidell is much larger, and you only get to know a sliver of the people that live there — I’m not entirely sure.
I used to think Slidell was a small town, but compared to Columbia it might as well be Hong Kong. It was definitely an adjustment getting used to living in a true small town. From learning I couldn’t just go to a hardware store on a Sunday to having random strangers be nice to me for no apparent reason, small-town Columbia was different than anywhere else I had lived.
But there’s one big reason why it is so different: the people.
One of the questions I ask people who work in the community every week for our running Professional Profile is “What do you enjoy about living and working in Columbia and Marion County?”
It’s quite amazing that there are only three common things they begin their answer with: It’s a small town, everybody knows everybody and, most of all, the people. They all kind of tie into one another, but it exemplifies the closeness of this community.
There has always been this negative connotation that living in a small town where everybody knows everybody was a bad thing, whether it was because there was too much gossip or too much judgement. But the way these people answer that question is always in an encouraging tone with a positive explanation.
That’s just the way it is in this community. If a family is going through a rough time with an illness or losing a relative, the entire community responds in a way I had never witnessed before, which is really incredible. Or when little league teams need financial assistance to travel to North Carolina or Texas for a World Series, the community responds with not just donations but with unfettered support as well.
It isn’t always easy working in a visible position like a reporter in a small town like Columbia, though. There are going to be stories, whether it’s sports or news, that aren’t 100 percent positive. When we write anything in a negative context, more often than not we end up hearing about it in one way or another. It just comes with the territory, and you learn very early on in journalism school you can’t please everyone. All you can control is being fair and accurate, and we do everything we can to do that here at The Columbian-Progress.
However, even when you ruffle a few feathers, the very same people who had an issue with something you wrote are quick to look past it and treat you with dignity and respect the next time they see you. The people in this community are simply welcoming, caring and the best I’ve ever been surrounded by.
I have no idea how long I will remain here in Columbia, but regardless of the duration there’s no questioning the impact it has had on me. That impact is intertwined directly to the people who make up the very fabric of this community.
Joshua Campbell is sports editor of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him via email at joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com.
