For Debra Vaughn, moving back to Oak Harbor is like slipping on comfortable shoes.

The Whidbey News-Times’ newest staff member is also an Oak Harbor High School graduate who has moved back home with her two children to be close to family and to continue her career in journalism.

“I loved growing up here, and it doesn’t feel that different 20 years later, although that one-way road downtown is throwing me off,” Vaughn said. “And so is the kraken.”

Vaughn pointed out there have been many changes to Oak Harbor since she was a child.

“When I was a kid, there was no Walmart and no Starbucks, but there was Chris’s Bakery,” Vaughn said. “I wasted a lot of my allowance on candy at Masten’s Variety Store.”

And while things have changed, Vaughn’s life is also making a full circle. In high school, her journalism teacher was Jim Waller, the Whidbey News-Times’ current sports editor.

“How cool is it I get to work with him now in a newsroom?” Vaughn said. “I do blame him for getting me involved in newspapers. It’s a tough habit to break. It’s also tough for me to call him anything but Mr. Waller.”

Since that time, Vaughn has amassed a decade of daily newspaper experience, most of it at The Daily Herald in Everett.

“Debra was an outstanding student in high school, and I am not surprised she has built a successful career in journalism,” Waller said.

Vaughn said she looks forward to reacquainting herself with Oak Harbor and its residents.