I was not born in West Virginia, but I was definitely raised here.

While I was born in Virginia and spent a couple of years in Maryland, West Virginia is where I say I am from. I moved to WV when I was five years old and have lived here ever since.

Growing up in West Virginia wasn’t always ideal. While growing up, I always said I was going to leave. No child ever says “I want to grow up and move to West Virginia!” And growing up in WV I knew I was going to leave. Not completely sure when I was going to leave, but I was not going to spend the rest of my life in this state. But when my family picked up and moved to South Carolina right before I was supposed to move to college, my world changed.

My mother was offered a job in Beaufort, South Carolina during summer of 2016. She, my older sister, and younger brother packed up all their belongings and headed south. I had already been living with my father for a while, so he decided to stay in WV with me until I moved away for college. In reality, it made sense for my father to stay because I was leaving for Marshall University in less than two months. To move my stuff all the way to SC then back to Marshall would be stupid.

My first year of college I spent Thanksgiving, Spring, and part of Winter Breaks with my family in South Carolina. It was nice. Good weather, near the beach, and I was able to spend some time with my family and pets. It was nice as a tiny vacation.

But when summer of 2017 rolled around, South Carolina was not nearly as nice. While Beaufort is a sweet town, there is not much to do in the area. It is very close to the beach, but that is not super great for anyone that does not like the beach such as myself. The only places to go do anything around 40 minutes away or more in Hilton Head, Savannah, or Charleston.

I had no friends, no job, and nothing to do. All of my friends were either in Martinsburg, WV, where I grew up, or Huntington, where my campus is. Now I don’t have a lot of people that I talk to on a regular basis, and I am okay with that, but I could not hang out with anyone. The people in my neighborhood seemed to either be 7 years old or 47 years old so I was not really interested in making friends with them.

Additionally, no one was hiring. I thought there would be places that would love to have someone for the summer. I was wrong. I was offered a job that I would have had to commute an hour to get to. I would have loved to take it, but I do not drive. My family wasn’t willing to drive me down there, which is completely understandable. Then I had an interview at the local petsmart, but of course they were looking for someone more long term.

So with no friends and no job, I had nothing to do. I was able to spend time with my family, but everyone knows there is such a thing as too much time with your family. Staying in a house with my annoying little brother all summer was not ideal.

And at some point over the summer, my mom told me she was confused because she remembered me saying I was going to get out of West Virginia one day. I thought about this. I thought about why I was so unhappy. I know that one day I will move out of WV to a place where I do not have friends there, maybe not a job, and will not be completely sure what to do.

But I will be leaving on my own terms. I will be ready to say goodbye to the people I spent years of my life with. I will be looking for a career instead of a job. I will have my life at least a little figured out.

I guess I just was not ready to leave WV yet. No, it is not the best or most exciting place to live, but it’s pretty much all I know. My entire life is here, or it was, until my family moved. Now, besides family, everything else is still here. My friends are spread across West Virginia. My job is on campus. I spend my time not in WV missing it and everything in it. I refuse to spend the rest of my life in West Virginia, but that does not mean this state won’t always be my home.