Stephanie Effken

    Driving into Seward after a long Christmas break I could hardly believe that I, a New Yorker from the east end of Long Island, am actually living and working in small-town Nebraska. Though I have spent the majority of the past three and a half years in Seward at Concordia University, a dorm is hardly worth labeling "home."
     So now Seward is my home and my Nebraska license is sure proof.
     Previously, home was Riverhead, N.Y., where I have lived most of my life. I grew up just a short walk away from the beach and a short train ride away from the heart of Manhattan.
     You, as many other Nebraskans, may be asking youselves, "What is a woman from New York doing in Nebraska?"
     I often ask myself that same question as I am immersed in a strange world of easy pace, peaceful streets and corn.
     I heard about Concordia University through my hometown pastor and his wife who both graduated from there.
     Not thinking I would like Nebraska much I got on a plane with a friend to visit a state most people from the east coast can't label on a map. To my surprise I quickly learned that Concordia was the place I wanted to be and that people in Nebraska really are "livin' the good life."
     Three and a half years later I find that the college experience I had waited for my whole life is over and I have walked out the front doors of Weller with a B.A in communications to my first job, a new husband, as I was married at the end of December and a strange world of bills--who knew there would be so many?
     As I settle into this new life amongst the corn here in the small town of Seward, I look forward to serving the Seward community and share with you my passion for the news.