After over two years as the editor of local newspapers for other communities, I now have the opportunity to serve as the editor of my own hometown paper, Garden City Life. While I have thoroughly enjoyed working in those other communities and will still be serving as the editor of the Levittown Tribune, it is with great anticipation that I take over the reins of the Garden City Life.

Garden City is a very special community, and who better to report on the happenings of the village than someone who has spent her entire life here? And though I was born and raised here, I still look forward to learning more about the village from another perspective.

My parents have lived in the village for over 40 years and raised myself and my eight siblings here, all the while teaching us the value of growing up in Garden City. As a child, I may not have always appreciated what they meant when they told us what a wonderful place Garden City was, but now as an adult I look back and see just how much this village does offer its residents.

I look back and remember skating on Hubbell's Pond during the winter and playing GCAA Softball in the spring. Riding my bike to the parks and going to the pool with friends were things I took for granted as a child but now see as being unique to Garden City. How many villages offer their own skating rink, playgrounds within walking distance of nearly every home and a pool as large and well-maintained as ours? Having worked for the Recreation Department through college and after graduation, I saw just how much the families of Garden City have at their fingertips. And while recreation facilities are wonderful, in looking at some of the advantages of Garden City, you can't overlook the quality of education, attested to by the consistently high marks the G.C. Public Schools receive from the state, year after year.

All in all, while I already have learned to appreciate many of the advantages I have had growing up in this community, I look forward to seeing, even more, how much Garden City offers. This is a growing and changing community as we can all see each time we drive down Franklin Avenue or past any of the schools that are being renovated, and I look forward to chronicling this growth and reporting all that residents need to know about what is happening in this community.

-Susie Trenkle