ROGER LALONDE / Staff

Leslie Williams enjoys her celebration cake as she leaves the Marco Eagle to take a new position with the Naples Daily News. Williams was a writer with the Eagle for 10 months.

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I’m no good at goodbyes.

While it’s partly because my well-disguised social awkwardness tends to creep out at times like these, it is also for another reason. I believe that, no matter what, in some capacity, and somewhere down the line, we’ll see each other again.

This is no different.

Marco Island, I am leaving to take on a new position in Naples. I will still be a part of the Scripps family, working for the Naples Daily News covering transportation and growth. However, I will no longer be directly covering the place that I will always remember fondly as my first job.

In many ways, this job has been a rewarding one. The people on Marco are – as I was warned – a very sharp bunch.

Not a thing got by you. Not a typo. Not a misspelled name. Not a mistaken piece of trivia.

It taught me to be on my toes and to respond graciously to feedback. It also taught me that I can’t please everyone.

I came to Marco Island not long after I graduated from the University of North Carolina. I was expecting to cover something low-pressure and unintimidating, either homes or businesses. Two weeks after I began, I found myself smack in the middle of the pressure cooker: the city beat.

Believe me, I wondered what I had gotten myself into when, the day after my new position was announced, I was inundated with emails both welcoming me and warning me.

I laugh a little thinking of that now, because it would have been so easy to fold, cut my losses and walk away intact.

But here’s the thing: I am a more complete person now than I was then for having stuck around.

As difficult as it is to work in a situation of constant scrutiny, it is monumentally more rewarding to leave feeling like you have done everything in your power to make a situation work and to leave your readers with an overall benefit.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying I changed anyone’s life. But it was in the little things – covering the memorial service of a deceased community leader or attending a committee meeting on rental housing – that I felt pleasure at providing visibility to things that a few people cared deeply about.

In a community as alive and politically vibrant as Marco Island, it makes it all the more empowering to have sources and readers approach to say “you always were fair in your reporting.”

It is truly the greatest compliment anyone could pay me.

Now, I can just picture what the blogs are going to say beneath this column.

They will be snarky, they will be hateful and they will be insulting. But they will also be anonymous.

As much as it pained me at times, I never responded to anonymous comments on our Web site. I have no tolerance for people who hurl rocks, then hide behind their anonymity.

However, anyone who has called or approached me at a meeting knows that I am thrilled to have a conversation about our news coverage or to help troubleshoot when someone encounters a problem. I cared (and still do!) deeply about what people think of the Eagle.

Why? Because we are not in the business of making ourselves happy and winning awards for writing, but because we are in the business of providing information.

If someone has a problem with the way information is being presented, it is an impediment to that person being involved in their community at every possible level. It is something that – I can promise you – the people still working at the Eagle want to fix at every turn.

And the only issues that don’t get solved are the ones no one attempts to resolve through constructive dialogue. I’m not talking name-calling or insult-hurling. I’m talking one-on-one conversations.

I think many people are learning that now, after Marco Island’s pivotal elections in January. The rubble has cleared, the attacks of the election cycle subsided and people are trying to figure out now how to work together.

It’s the same with your community newspaper.

No problem will ever get solved if you sit back and blog from afar about your discontent. You can call, you can write a letter, you can even stop by in person to talk about what bugs you. But if you don’t do any of those things, the rest is just noise.

It might seem kind of silly for me to write this since I am so miserable at goodbyes. But I do it out of some intrinsic need to let you know I am moving on. I have gained so much from working with all of you, whether you gave me quotes, you gave me encouragement or you just gave me grief.

And yes, those who gave me grief helped in their own ways, from helping thicken my skin to occasionally pointing out a real problem in need of remedy.

When it came down to it, saying goodbye seemed like the least I could do. But I won’t let it end on that note. First, I’ll write what anyone with the best of intentions would: keep in touch.

Because, don’t worry, I’ll still be watching to see what happens. Marco Island is just one of those places that gets under your skin. I think it’s the reason so many people keep coming back season after season, year after year.

And second, I want to introduce the person taking my place.

Marco Island, meet Kelly Farrell.

You may have noticed her byline already in the Naples Daily News or the Marco Eagle. For a long time, she has been a trusted freelancer. Now, she is taking over news coverage on Marco.

For those of you who haven’t already, I encourage you to establish communication with Kelly. Build in-roads with her now and tell her what is important to you.

The more she learns from each and every one of you, the better she will be able to write news coverage that reflects the things you care about.

Because when it comes down to it, that’s what we’re here for, right?

Oh, and Marco Island – I’ll see you again soon.