I have a Google document with every Sophisticated Living editor’s letter I have written since we launched in Columbus nearly ten years ago. At over 100 pages, it is a diary of sorts that tracks not only changes in life and work and kids, but changes in me.Those early letters read a bit guarded to 2023 Amelia. Written to gain reader engagement and explain who and what Sophisticated Living Columbus would be, they now seem like nervously written and likely conspicuous sales pitches intended to convince you (and me) that I was fit to lead a magazine with the word sophisticatedin the title. With each passing year, these letters have become more and more vulnerable -an honest representation of the personal and professional challenges and successes faced by an average Appalachian-turned-midwesterner just trying to navigate mid-life. It is hard to be vulnerable and honest -particularly when you are putting words down into print that will be read by thousands of readers, many of whom you have never even met. But sometimes the hardest place to be vulnerable and honest is with myself. As they say — denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

Text: Amelia Jeffers