By Zachary Roman

Staff reporter

I had never been more excited for any job ever. Moving out to the Highlands for the summer and pursuing my love of journalism with an internship at the Haliburton Echo was like a dream come true.

For my entire life I have loved Ontario’s cottage country. While I go to school at Ryerson University in Toronto I am decidedly not a city person. A summer isn’t a summer in my eyes without a camping trip at Killbear Provincial Park in Parry Sound or a visit to a friend’s cottage on the lake. I love the outdoors passionately – and while I hadn’t ever been to Haliburton I got the idea from all of my research that I’d fit in perfectly.

Unfortunately just like everyone else who had big plans this summer the onset of COVID-19 threw a wrench in mine. The biggest wrench in the whole toolbox.

But not the biggest wrench in the tool shed as luckily for me my internship has turned to an internet-ship. I will still be reporting for the Haliburton Echo this summer (I suppose you wouldn’t be reading this if I wasn’t) from my family home in Caledon just north of Brampton. I’ll be setting a new all-time phone bill world record as I look forward to getting to know you and your community through interviews that I wish could be in person.

One of my favourite parts of journalism is how many people I get to meet learn from and laugh with. I’ll always love and appreciate that I have the privilege to amplify voices that haven’t been heard and tell the stories of people that haven’t been told before.

When I’m not on the beat reporting you can find me downhill longboarding or training my family’s new rescue dog Otis. Someday I hope to teach him how to skateboard – but for now we’re just enjoying every minute of getting to know each other.

So if you know of an awesome hill I should ride or perhaps more importantly have a story idea feel free to reach out to me by email at zachary@haliburtonpress.com or on Twitter @roman_reports. Let’s talk!