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Stina Sieg Bids Farewell To The Desert, KJZZ — And You

By Stina Sieg
Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 9:46am
Updated: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 11:14am
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For nearly six years, you’ve been hearing the voice of reporter Stina Sieg. Now, she’s leaving for a new adventure in Grand Junction, at Colorado Public Radio. Here she is, in her own words.

I remember the very moment I knew how badly I wanted this job. It was the morning after my in-person interview, and I was listening to KJZZ’s Morning Edition host Dennis Lambert on my rental car’s radio as I drove north on 87, toward nothing in particular. I was just hungry for the desert.

I pulled over, and looked out at the mountains and expanse of sandy rocks and tufts of green shrubs — and told it all I’d come back, if it was meant to be.

My relationship with Arizona has felt magical ever since.

I’ve been to many cool places here — the top of Humphrey’s Peak, the bottom of the Grand Canyon, that pig sanctuary in Marana.

But what has truly mattered to me has been you — the people who call this place home.

You’ve spoken with me year after year, story after story, about why you taught your kid Esperanto or what inspired you to run every single day for four decades.

Thank you for trusting me with you stories — and for listening to mine, especially those vulnerable ones that touched my life directly. Like my piece on my 200-mile hike on the Arizona Trail and that tribute to my sweet friend Jane, who left this world way too soon.

These last few weeks, as I’ve driven into work, I’ve found myself bursting into tears without warning. It’s probably about the state of the world — and the fact my life has been portioned into heavy boxes.

But it’s also about you, and saying goodbye to what we’ve shared these last five years, 10 months and a handful of days.

In Colorado, I’ll going to keep searching for those sweet — sometimes offbeat — stories that I love about the West.

But I’m going to miss this place, the wide-open desert and the electric sunsets.

It’s all part of me now.

Thank you.