I’ve driven up Highway 50 many times in my life, but this weekend was different. I was voluntarily trailing a nine-foot cargo van with a “$19.95 IN TOWN” sticker plastered across the back, something I can confidently say I’ve never let happen before for longer than a mile. And, perhaps more notably, this time I’m not driving back.

This is my first big move, the only prior ones being actual “in town” moves from college apartment to college house, always a summer at my parents’ in between. Now as my sister and I unloaded the U-Haul, I pictured the next two years of my life. I thought I would feel nervous to start work. I was giddy. 

In the eight years since I joined my high school paper, I carved out time for journalism. I interviewed people during lunch. After my homework, I wrote. I worked for outlets on the side. I spent my Tuesday nights at city council meetings. Starting my undergrad at Cal Poly, I wrote my first story for Mustang News before I had been to a class. I woke up at 6:30 every morning for two and a half years to write a newsletter, even after funding dried up. I interned. I edited.

Now I get to spend every day doing what I love and serving this community while becoming a part of it. I’m very grateful to be here.

I was placed at the Tahoe Daily Tribune to report on housing issues in the Tahoe basin for two years — one of 35 new fellows through UC Berkeley’s California Local News Fellowship. 

I’ve wanted to be a housing reporter since I was 16, watching my neighbors in Silicon Valley slowly get priced out and legislation target homeless residents in my hometown. Reporting on these issues gave me a sense of agency and purpose, which I hope to pass along through in-depth reporting and accessible stories. I minored in City and Regional Planning to be able to decipher the city bureaucracies I would face in doing this work so other people don’t have to. 

In the first few days I’ve lived here it’s become clear to me what a strong community South Lake Tahoe is. Walking through my neighborhood, everyone I passed said hello and let me pet their dogs. Everyone I talk to gives me recommendations for places to eat or get coffee, which I’ve accumulated in my notes app.

While I can’t offer you any recommendations of things to do just yet, I can tell you that I spent my weekend unpacking, meeting my new roommates, taking walks in my neighborhood, lounging on the beach in Meek’s Bay with some of the other fellows in my program and anticipating what my life will look like here in just a short time.

Unloading the U-Haul was the highlight of my weekend, simply because of how excited I am to be the newest member of South Lake Tahoe’s community.

If you see me in the wild, please come up and say hi, I want to meet as many people here as I can. And if you have story ideas or tips, send them my way at cheltzel@tahoedailytribune.com.