Saturday, November 8, 2008

WV Expat

I'm creating this blog to use as a sounding board for my thoughts and feelings about my home state of West Virginia.

I was born and raised in Raleigh County, West Virginia. I graduated from Independence High School in Coal City, West Virginia, and graduated from Concord College (now Concord University) in Athens, West Virginia.

Fifteen years ago my husband (who graduated from Richwood High School in Richwood, West Virginia, and also Concord College) and I left West Virginia. It wasn't because we didn't love the state. It was because we couldn't make a living there.

We've attempted once to return home. My husband was offered a job at West Virginia University in the fall of 2007. We would have loved to move to the Morgantown area, but the pay he was offered was over 30% less than what he was currently making in the metro Atlanta area.

That was the hardest decision we have ever had to make.

The truth is thousands of West Virginians have had to make that same decision. In my neighborhood in Acworth, GA, there are currently 4 families who have all moved from West Virginia to seek better financial opportunities.

You can't drive around the metro Atlanta area without seeing WV stickers on cars or WV flags hanging on front porches. We are transplanted West Virginians, but we are still proud to be Mountaineers.

This blog will focus on news of West Virginia, the history that makes the state so proud, and the issues the state faces.

Feel free to comment with your own West Virginia story. Expats tell me what part of the state you are from and what you love about it. Also tell me why you had to leave.

I hope this blog will be a way for displaced West Virginians to connect and share news from home.

Montani Semper Liberi!

4 comments:

A. said...

LOVE this!! I was going to write about how and why we left the state, went back and left again in a day or two. I'm going to link here, if that's OK. I know at least one other ex-West Virginian that blogs. She's been desperately trying to go back.

justjuls said...

This is great - I came here from the "Blooming Where We're Planted" blog. I am from WV and have been desperately homesick for the 2 1/2 years that we have been away. I wasn't born there - but my heart was when I moved there at the age of 13. It is the only place I ever lived long enough to put down roots and it is the place I proudly call my home. I lived in Harpers Ferry/ Charles Town area - on the eastern panhandle.
There is a lot more to say - but for now - I'm a WV lover too! I am still trying to get back home!

Unknown said...

Hi Tina,

Thanks for visiting my blog. It sounds like West Virginians are moving to Atlanta like New Jerseyans (sp?) are moving to West Virginia. I even met one of my old supervisors out here. He lives about a mile away from me now.

The whole Mountaineer "thing" is pretty amazing. I've never seen anything like it where EVERYONE shows so much support.

Shannon

Stephanie Appleton said...

Well being new to this state I can say we love it! Growing up (near Akron Ohio) In middle school I had a friend whose family had moved from WV when she was a baby. They went back "home" a couple time every month. I always found it strange, but now I understand....