One year ago, my wife and I made the decision to move from Washington D.C. to Fayetteville, here in West Virginia.
We loved our life in D.C., just a mile from the Capitol, with the idyllic setting of all the city has to offer. We’d lived in D.C. for nearly 10 years, a place we’d called home since I’d left my time as an active duty officer in the Navy SEAL Teams.
Still, we chose to relocate to West Virginia. The questions and misunderstanding from loved ones were as predictable as are the misperceptions about the state we now call home. But we have a deep connection to the state and, and know it will be the right place for our two young children to grow up.
The move has come with all of the challenges that long-time West Virginia residents have learned to manage, but it’s also come with all the opportunities for growth and community life that we’d expected to find. While all of our initial hopes of finding a different pace, more time in nature, and a tight-knit group of friends of friends have been met, we’re also starting to see and appreciate that West Virginia is more than a beacon for people like us looking for a different approach to life. It’s also an incredibly important example for the rest of the country to learn from.
Read more here from the WV Gazette Mail.