Colleen Kujawa, letters editor

My origins are the start of a Tom Petty song: I grew up in an Indiana town. (Though my mama was definitely around.) I loved the country. I loved falling asleep to the sound of frogs and crickets.

As a girl, I didn't expect that as an adult I'd end up living in Chicago and loving it. I didn't expect I'd be able to bike downtown streets without sacrificing life and limb. But eight years of living here, I'm still alive (it helps that I stop at stop signs and stoplights), and I can't imagine living anywhere else. Chicago is a place of grace and grit.

I stumbled into journalism after college. I started at a community newspaper and eventually wound up on the copy desk of the Times, northwest Indiana's largest paper. That was my gateway drug, so to speak, to the Tribune.

Working at the Tribune, first on the copy desk and then as a member of the opinion team, has been a world-class education. Not just because of my very smart, very funny and delightfully idiosyncratic colleagues. But because of the readers, too.