Pulitzer Prize winning author John Ed Pearce once wrote that, “Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.”

Fitting words, without a doubt, but add in the fact that Pearce is a fellow journalist from my home state of Kentucky and his sentiments couldn’t be more perfect at this stage of my life.

That mantra has been on my mind in recent weeks after I made the decision to accept a newspaper publisher job in Winchester, Ky. Change like this is never easy but the draw of home and family simply proved too strong. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to relocate to within an hour and a half of my hometown.

That still didn’t make it an easy decision. It has been a roller coaster three years, and I’m not sure if it feels much shorter or far longer than that time span.

Niles and southwest Michigan is a great community with so many amazing people mostly working together to move it forward. This temporary stop has truly been a blessing. I’ve made some great friends and learned so much about what makes a community special.

Leader Publications will continue to move forward. Over the past three years our team has worked very hard to establish a strong foundation. General manager Ambrosia Neldon will continue to build on that and take it to the next level, striving to produce community newspapers of which the community can be proud.

The sky is truly the limit for the newspapers.

Leaving is very bittersweet but I’ve made lots of friends and can honestly say my time here changed me.

Even though everyone knows I talk a lot, I’m still not one for long goodbyes. So it’s best to say farewell and Godspeed.

It seems only fitting to end with another quote.

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, widely considered the father of the Boy Scouts, said, “Try and leave this world a little better than you found it.”

I can honestly say I gave 110 percent to do just that at Leader Publications and in southwest Michigan.

It is just time to go home.

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.