Come Here's and From Here's
Moving from a city of over 800,000 to a county of 39,000 is quite the culture shock. I'm not usually one for numbers, mostly because it is difficult for me to comprehend what 800,000 or 39,000 looks like. You can put jellybeans or M&M's in a jar to represent those numbers, but something about that just is not relevant to me-- maybe for the simple fact that M&M's are not the same size as human bodies. For comparison, the entire county in which I live contains fewer people than the total enrollment at The Florida State University* (41,867 in 2016). That's pretty mind-blowing.
All of this is to say that living in a more rural region has a lot of perks that many people do not realize. For starters, the sheer number of people in Charlotte result in an amazing form of gridlock during rush hour traffic that renders your car more useful as a tool for receiving a radio signal than it does a vehicle that gets you from place to place. I worked at a school that was situated 7 miles away from my house, and when I left work late (which happened often), I could sit in traffic for upwards of 45 minutes. In Wise and Norton, my home is 6.3 miles away from work, and my commute is an average of 15 minutes. There is rarely a time when you go to a store that you do not run into someone you know (which I fully recognize can be both good and bad). Your neighbors are friendly and helpful. And people will probably know of you before you've even met them; this was really interesting, because Meg is the brand new lacrosse coach at the college in our area, and although we hadn't met anyone here, EVERYONE knew who we were. Living in a small town provides a lot of civic opportunities that simply are not possible when you are competing with 799,999 other people-- being a member of the school board, city council, or IDA are engagements available to almost anyone.
When we first moved here, Meg and I had huge revelations for "things that will save this area!" My mom, who is a small-towner herself, laughed at us and called us "Come Here's". She had to explain that people living in small towns are one of two things-- "From Here's" or "Come Here's"-- and that in general, these groups face difficult situations due to different experiences and opinions. We have found that Wise County, VA, definitely has it's fair share of "From Here's" and "Come Here's." The majority of our closest friends are "Come Here's" (college professors and employees), but we have a number of "From Here" friends as well, and the one common feature all of these amazing people share is the ability to look forward with hope at everything our small area could be. I recently heard someone speak at an economic forum in Danville, VA, and he elected to change the wording from "Come Here / From Here" to "Rose Here / Chose Here" to illustrate that not all "From Here's" are stuck in T.W.I.A.B. (the way it's always been). His word choice, albeit grammatically incorrect, is an important distinction that is the difference between thriving and dying out. When people get together with a common interest and goal, amazing things can happen (a little Margaret Mead paraphrase, if you will).
So why am I talking about this today? On three separate occasions this weekend, Meg and I had three conversations with three very demographically different people-- two From Here's and one Come Here-- but each conversation had the same theme. Each of these people felt strongly that our small towns, cities, and county as a whole need to find ways to encourage people to stay here because as other areas around us grow and incorporate awesome things (coffee shops! river tubing! breweries! boutique hotels! trail systems!) our area is being drained of activity and creativity. In order to stay relevant, it is integral to change with the times and meet the needs of the people in the region. In my humble opinion, areas like Wise County rely too much on the experiences of "From Here's" and T.W.I.A.B. The college in this region matriculates an average of 250 students each year, and very few of these young, idealistic, energetic professionals elect to stay in this region because it is lacking the very basic amenities their young professional friends take for granted every day (coffee shops! breweries! boutique clothing stores! trail systems! museums!).
Our move from Charlotte illustrates the lacking perfectly. When we go "home", we spend our time at venues that are meaningful to our lives, but also that are awesome. We go to the US National Whitewater Center to listen to live music and drink local beer and wine; we go to Charlotte Knights Triple-A baseball games; we visit a number of craft breweries (including our very favorite, NoDa Brewing, which you should visit and namedrop us if you do!), and we experience open-mic nights at some of those breweries; we go to grocery stores like Whole Foods that are pricey but abundant in their selection of healthy, happy produce and non-GMO items. And when we are in Charlotte doing these things, we experience them with literally thousands of young professionals just like us. If we want to experience things like this in our own region, we either drive to Charlotte or we go to Johnson City, TN and spend our dollars there. We regularly provide revenue to the state of Tennessee, money that we would much rather be spending in our own region. We go to Earth Fare and The Fresh Market, Target and awesome restaurants and breweries. We vote with our dollars, and too often our dollars do not vote on Wise County, VA.
After our conversations, Meg and I talked about how much we have to offer by way of experiences and ideas, and how much we want this area to be a place people want to be, instead of a place people want to leave. One of the women we spoke to this weekend lamented that her daughter and son-in-law will most likely be moving out of the area soon, and she is devastated that she will be away from her future grandchild- but she, unlike many of our civic leaders, recognizes that the ties that bind people to this area are growing thinner as the days pass, and she can't blame her children for moving on to better jobs and opportunities. She encouraged us to consider being a part of the city council and tourism committee, because "we need fresh ideas and smart women".
Who knows? Maybe we will be the next members of the board. If that's the case, many From Here's are in for a wild ride. But I don't want it to be that way. I want to be a Come Here and a Chose Here. I want it to be clear that our motives are not to better ourselves or fulfill a need that we have inside us, but rather to offer a helping hand to a region that is suffering. We want more people to choose to live here because it will provide us with more things to do while also providing more tax revenue and success to the region. We want to be a part of the change that helps this region grow and prosper. Come Here or From Here... does it really matter?
*my Alma Mater
All of this is to say that living in a more rural region has a lot of perks that many people do not realize. For starters, the sheer number of people in Charlotte result in an amazing form of gridlock during rush hour traffic that renders your car more useful as a tool for receiving a radio signal than it does a vehicle that gets you from place to place. I worked at a school that was situated 7 miles away from my house, and when I left work late (which happened often), I could sit in traffic for upwards of 45 minutes. In Wise and Norton, my home is 6.3 miles away from work, and my commute is an average of 15 minutes. There is rarely a time when you go to a store that you do not run into someone you know (which I fully recognize can be both good and bad). Your neighbors are friendly and helpful. And people will probably know of you before you've even met them; this was really interesting, because Meg is the brand new lacrosse coach at the college in our area, and although we hadn't met anyone here, EVERYONE knew who we were. Living in a small town provides a lot of civic opportunities that simply are not possible when you are competing with 799,999 other people-- being a member of the school board, city council, or IDA are engagements available to almost anyone.
When we first moved here, Meg and I had huge revelations for "things that will save this area!" My mom, who is a small-towner herself, laughed at us and called us "Come Here's". She had to explain that people living in small towns are one of two things-- "From Here's" or "Come Here's"-- and that in general, these groups face difficult situations due to different experiences and opinions. We have found that Wise County, VA, definitely has it's fair share of "From Here's" and "Come Here's." The majority of our closest friends are "Come Here's" (college professors and employees), but we have a number of "From Here" friends as well, and the one common feature all of these amazing people share is the ability to look forward with hope at everything our small area could be. I recently heard someone speak at an economic forum in Danville, VA, and he elected to change the wording from "Come Here / From Here" to "Rose Here / Chose Here" to illustrate that not all "From Here's" are stuck in T.W.I.A.B. (the way it's always been). His word choice, albeit grammatically incorrect, is an important distinction that is the difference between thriving and dying out. When people get together with a common interest and goal, amazing things can happen (a little Margaret Mead paraphrase, if you will).
So why am I talking about this today? On three separate occasions this weekend, Meg and I had three conversations with three very demographically different people-- two From Here's and one Come Here-- but each conversation had the same theme. Each of these people felt strongly that our small towns, cities, and county as a whole need to find ways to encourage people to stay here because as other areas around us grow and incorporate awesome things (coffee shops! river tubing! breweries! boutique hotels! trail systems!) our area is being drained of activity and creativity. In order to stay relevant, it is integral to change with the times and meet the needs of the people in the region. In my humble opinion, areas like Wise County rely too much on the experiences of "From Here's" and T.W.I.A.B. The college in this region matriculates an average of 250 students each year, and very few of these young, idealistic, energetic professionals elect to stay in this region because it is lacking the very basic amenities their young professional friends take for granted every day (coffee shops! breweries! boutique clothing stores! trail systems! museums!).
Our move from Charlotte illustrates the lacking perfectly. When we go "home", we spend our time at venues that are meaningful to our lives, but also that are awesome. We go to the US National Whitewater Center to listen to live music and drink local beer and wine; we go to Charlotte Knights Triple-A baseball games; we visit a number of craft breweries (including our very favorite, NoDa Brewing, which you should visit and namedrop us if you do!), and we experience open-mic nights at some of those breweries; we go to grocery stores like Whole Foods that are pricey but abundant in their selection of healthy, happy produce and non-GMO items. And when we are in Charlotte doing these things, we experience them with literally thousands of young professionals just like us. If we want to experience things like this in our own region, we either drive to Charlotte or we go to Johnson City, TN and spend our dollars there. We regularly provide revenue to the state of Tennessee, money that we would much rather be spending in our own region. We go to Earth Fare and The Fresh Market, Target and awesome restaurants and breweries. We vote with our dollars, and too often our dollars do not vote on Wise County, VA.
After our conversations, Meg and I talked about how much we have to offer by way of experiences and ideas, and how much we want this area to be a place people want to be, instead of a place people want to leave. One of the women we spoke to this weekend lamented that her daughter and son-in-law will most likely be moving out of the area soon, and she is devastated that she will be away from her future grandchild- but she, unlike many of our civic leaders, recognizes that the ties that bind people to this area are growing thinner as the days pass, and she can't blame her children for moving on to better jobs and opportunities. She encouraged us to consider being a part of the city council and tourism committee, because "we need fresh ideas and smart women".
Who knows? Maybe we will be the next members of the board. If that's the case, many From Here's are in for a wild ride. But I don't want it to be that way. I want to be a Come Here and a Chose Here. I want it to be clear that our motives are not to better ourselves or fulfill a need that we have inside us, but rather to offer a helping hand to a region that is suffering. We want more people to choose to live here because it will provide us with more things to do while also providing more tax revenue and success to the region. We want to be a part of the change that helps this region grow and prosper. Come Here or From Here... does it really matter?
*my Alma Mater
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