My name is Christopher Robbins and I have lived in Lexington for over 26 years. I am a journalism student at the University of Kentucky, journalism will be my second degree. The Lexington Commons project is one of my responsibilities; I will be contributing blogs and stories to this site over the next few months.
I just turned 30-years-old. This might not seem a big deal, but when you report to a campus every day and are surrounded by 18-22 year old students, it makes you feel a little bit long in the tooth.
I love writing. Since, as a university student, I have a lot of say over what I do for the rest of my life, I plan on spending much of my time writing blog entries like this as well as hard news stories that ask and answer big questions. Though a lot of my writing responsibilities for the Lexington Commons seem to be involved in putting together PR pieces for local non-profit organizations, hardly a journalist endeavor, I am confident that this activity will lead me to bigger and more interesting stories.
I also enjoy the usual young-to-middle aged man activities: sports, video games, the occasional drinking contest and snuggling with my wife, Cheryl.
I live in the Seven Parks neighborhood in Lexington, but I spent most of my childhood in the Hill'N'Dale area, near Southland Drive. I spent many mornings buying baseball cards at Slone's Market and gorging myself on candy from Old Kentucky Chocolates. I remember the venerable Saegser's Drugs, which still sold nickel cokes in the early 1990's, before it closed its doors for good. I remember Lexington before Man'o War Boulevard reached Bluegrass Airport, before the Fifth-Third bank building was erected downtown. I remember when businesses like JDI's and the Wrocklage nurtured a vibrant local music scene.
Despite all of these memories, I was not born in Kentucky. My parents came here from Sussex County, New Jersey, a sparsely populated appalachian highland blanketed with old dairy farms. In some ways my perspective on Lexington and central Kentucky is framed by my roots in New Jersey - most of my family still lives there, and both of my parents sport deep New Jersey accents. I spend a lot of time comparing the way government here functions to the way government there functions, comparisons that don't often favor Lexington.
Still, this is my home, for at least a while longer. I hope I am able to inform and entertain all of you.
