As I gaze out my office window on this Monday morning, the scene is gloomy, rainy and unseasonably cold for the Sonoran Desert.

Red Rock is partially shrouded in a gray blanket of nothingness.

It takes me back to a Christmas morning in 1983, when I was all alone in a house in Chandler. It was the first time in my life I had been away from home for Christmas.

And it was raining, adding to my depressed mood.

I was at the tender age of 22, having just started a brand new job at The Fountain Hills Times (well, at that time it was called The Times of Fountain Hills).

I was on the phone with my mom – crying – as I gazed into the gloomy backyard belonging to my childhood friend from Port Washington, Wis.

Since when does it rain on Christmas morning? And why did I decide to move out to Arizona? What the heck did I get myself into with this job where I have no idea what I’m doing? And really, mom, are you telling me Santa Claus doesn’t exist? Now what am I supposed to do?

So fast forward 32 years, and now I’m slowly cleaning out this office to make way for a change of careers at the start of 2016.

And no, I’m not “retiring.”

I suppose you could say I’m retiring from my career with the newspaper, but this poor working stiff has to keep working!

Little did I know that on the gloomy Christmas morning of 1983 that I would be destined to keep working at this newspaper for more than three decades…

There have been many professional and personal peaks and valleys over those decades, but that’s life, is it not?

I don’t exactly recall what my mom told me on that rainy Christmas morning, but like all moms, no doubt she showered me with all kinds of comforting words and reassuring phrases as her adult son blubbered in the phone.

Of course, one of her favorite phrases, or some derivative thereof, was, “It will make you stronger.”

It’s not at all comforting at the moment, but as time slowly marches on the truth of that cliché sticks with you – whether you care to recognize it or not.

That’s why my sister decided to place that phrase on mom’s tombstone – “It will make you stronger.”

These past 32 years on the job at the newspaper have definitely made me stronger. Maybe even a bit wiser?

I’ve been in the trenches reporting, editing and broadcasting (mostly in print, but for a while through the 4:30 News video broadcast) all the news that’s happened in Fountain Hills for the past 32 years.

It’s been an amazing run, and I have worked with and met hundreds if not thousands of wonderful people over those years.

And for those who haven’t been so wonderful, well, they made me stronger, right?

It’s been a couple of hours, and I’m finally getting back to finishing this column. The rain has stopped, the clouds are breaking up and the sun is poking through.

Ah, it is the Sonoran Desert once again.