Gainesville native Ronda Rich has written over 900 columns for newspapers in the past 15 years, or hundreds of thousands of words at an average of five columns a week. “What I’ve discovered is that people like to remember — they don’t like to be reminded in today’s world,” Rich said about her writing. “That’s what I set out every week to do — is to give my readers 15 minutes of remembering, not being reminded.” Her syndicated column runs in 50 newspapers across the Southeast. “It’s been very successful because all I do is tell stories that make people feel good for a few minutes,” she said. “It either makes them remember something nostalgic for them, or it makes them laugh or occasionally emotional, thinking back over the loss of someone.”