How do you start something like this? Your new boss says “Hey! Write something up about yourself for the front page of the paper, oh, and get me a headshot too.” So here I am, trying to _gure out what I

should say, what is important

and how to say it. I’m over

thinking it, it is a story, one I have been telling for nearly 47 years, start from the beginning right?

I was technically born in Redwing to parents that lived in Hastings, Kathy and Rollie Karnick and I’m a lifelong Hastings resident. I started a DJ company with a partner in 1990 and graduated from HHS in 1992 with the intent of being in the Army Reserve as I went to college. The Army did

not work out as planned due to

an injury and I was medically discharged. That is when I

met a wonderful woman that would not only soon be my wife, but give me 2 awesome kids, McKenna and Brent. Both kids are now adults and, the marriage has since ended, and that is ok, it is part of my story. College never came to fruition, so I worked.

I kept DJ’ing weddings and

eventually became the General Manager of the Hastings Pizza Hut, then Rosemount, then made a career change to the tech industry where I really wanted to be. The tech side of things went belly up and I found myself in retail for awhile until I made the change to being a professional driver.

See BRUCE Page 7

Bruce Karnick BRUCE

From Page 1

I drove for Minnesota Coaches for 5 years where I was fortunate to meet so many wonderful people and see amazing places around the United States.

Long hours over the road and being gone from home can become tiresome after a while so I made the switch to Tennis Sanitation as a Garbage truck driver. Surprisingly, I LOVED that job. Tennis is a great place to work, they do a lot of things right for their employees and had it not been for heart disease, I really believe I would have retired there. The switch to Tennis allowed me to be more active on the volunteer side. I had joined the Hastings Hawks board in 2011 as an announcer and marking guy. Hastings has a LOT of baseball going on in the summer and I am so happy to be a part of that. In 2017, I joined the Parks and Rec Commission, and that has been a learning experience. I encourage everyone to look in to joining one of the city commissions if you are at all interested in how cities run.

As fate would have it, I found I was physically not able to keep my job at Tennis and that led me here, to the Hastings Journal. Just a few breaths ago, I said fate. Yup, fate. How else do you explain the closing of the old paper, the creation of a new Hastings paper, having a good friend that knows the owner of the new paper and knows that I am looking for a new career. Just too many things converging at once to not think this was meant to be part of my story.

This begins the next chapter in my story. Yeah, yeah, that is pretty cliché, I know, but what else do you call it? I have always been a storyteller, ask anyone on my social media! I am not afraid to tell people where I stand, but I always try to do so respectfully. I love to learn and discuss, I feel open, honest discussion is not only extremely important, but becoming lost in today’s cancel culture. When I have had open discussions, I have found that people really do agree on a lot of today’s issues and what they would like to see, they just do not always agree on HOW to get there. I support our constitutional rights; I am a big advocate for the second amendment and I also support same sex marriages.

What do I hope to bring to the paper? I hope I can bring my generally positive vibe to stories. Write them in a fun and entertaining way. I do not believe I will ever win a Pulitzer Prize for anything I will write, I know for a fact that my writing style will not be 100 percent technically correct (thank the universe for spell check and Grammarly) but I hope you enjoy that. I hope to continue to enhance my connection to this awesome community. Hastings really is a unique town with so many wonderful things to offer. I know many residents already and I am looking forward to getting to know more. My primary focus with the paper will be working with businesses to _nd the right advertising to help them grow.

It really does take a village to survive in this crazy world and Hastings is the right village to support each other and their local businesses. When you read this, make sure to look at the local advertisers and go to their shops. Some of my remaining smaller roles are still in the works, but a few I know of that I am really looking forward to are reporting sports and being the local reporting photographer. The story will continue, and I am happy to have my part in telling it. If you would like to contribute in anyway to the stories or have a business to advertise, reach out to me! Phone 651-829-3234 x 701 or e-mail [email protected] news