How are those 2025 resolutions working out for you? 

Here at The COMO Companies, we approached the new year with a different “re” word. It wasn’t “resolution,” because that’s more of a checklist mentality than a continuing reality. Our key word for 2025 plans and ongoing strategies is “reimagine.”  

If you haven’t heard, there have been a few changes around here in the past few months. “Reimagine” fits the new mindset perfectly. How would you reimagine your life, your job, your home life, your relationships? How can we reimagine the content for COMO Magazine and COMO Business Times? It’s been an energizing exercise for me and our entire team.  

You’ll see the fruits of that reimagination now and throughout the year.  

The concept of resolutions seems so, well, last year. When I was 11, I wrote down a list of resolutions, and among the ambitious plans was this: “Read Encyclopedia ‘A’.”  And so I did. During 1975, I read the entire first volume of the World Book Encyclopedia. But please don’t quiz me. The overall plan was to start at the beginning and make my way to X-Y-Z, the volume that combined our most overlooked letters which, by the way, are among the highest-scoring letters in Scrabble. (Learn your X, Y, and Zees, kids.) Based on that plan, I would have consumed the entire encyclopedia before 1999.  

But I never made it past volume A.   

My age 11 year followed my fifth-grade year — and the pronouncement that heralded my lifetime of occupation in the vineyard of words. I penned a short horror story, “The Fleas” (they were GIANT fleas, so …), and my fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Elrod, wrote, “Exciting story!” at the top of the first page. In red ink.  

I went to her desk and thanked her, then I said, “I want to be a writer.” Mrs. Elrod stood, put her hands on my shoulders and squared me up as she leaned down to say with the most stern, serious, don’t-you-ever-forget-it tone: “You are a writer.”  

I suppose I never had a choice, did I?  

With that said, I want to recognize the writers who you read in our magazines and on our websites in 2024. When I joined the staff here as digital editor and copyeditor two years ago, I was cautioned to tread lightly with our freelancers because “writers are hard to get.” What I’ve discovered, instead, is that writers who care about great storytelling and communication respond quite well to high standards.  

We have a rich, deep roster of writers. Here’s who told you the stories of Columbia in 2024: Rachael Abney, Candice Ball, Alicia Belmore, Sunitha Bosecker, Scott Cristal, Caroline Dohack, Lauren Sable Freiman, Mary Kate Hafner, Lori Galaske, Jules Graebner, Lydia Graves, Sarah Joplin, Amanda Long, Roger McKinney, Natasha Myrick, Karen Pasley, Rhonda Stone Proctor, Ryan Sheehan, McKenna Stumph, Michelle Terhune, Emmi Weiner, and Marcus Wilkins. These talented scribes joined Associate Editor Kelsey Winkeljohn and me to provide a wide range of stories covering a plethora of people, businesses, events, and topics that make up the tapestry that is Columbia, Missouri.  

Recognition and “thank you” is also in order for our community Voices columnists: Beth Bramstedt, Barbara Buffaloe, Adonica Coleman, Khesha Duncan, Andrew Grabau, Gabe Huffington, Hoss Koetting, Matt McCormick, DeCarlon Seewood, Steve Spellman, Janine Stichter, Brian Toohey, and Brian Yearwood.  

You will also see an expansion of the Voices lineup in 2025.  

Finally, the biggest “thank you!” goes to our readers. (And if you know how much I detest using exclamation points, you’ll understand the depth of my thanks.) You hold us to high standards of reporting and writing. You also say “great job” and even “you probably could have done better,” and we expect that level of authentic feedback to continue.