North Carolina, I wish I knew how to quit you.
When I was two, my parents packed a Uhaul and moved our family from New York City to a little house in the woods just outside of Chapel Hill. I’ve been trying to leave North Carolina ever since.
Before high school, I begged my parents to send me away to a boarding school in New England. But instead, I stayed.
Later, when all my friends hoped for an acceptance letter to UNC-Chapel Hill, I fell in love with a liberal arts school in Ohio. Then I found myself on the phone with their admissions officer to explain why I gave up my coveted spot to attend a state school just 45 minutes away from home.
When I graduated from UNC-Greensboro, I broke up with my boyfriend and gave up my dream apartment, convinced that I belonged back in New York City.
A month before I planned to leave, I took a road trip to the mountains with a few friends from high school. As we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway, quietly taking it all in, someone broke the silence to ask me, “Are you sure you want to leave all of this?”
I couldn’t. So I stayed. And I keep staying. Despite my wanderlust and the fantasy of a different life in California or New York or Italy or France, I stay here in North Carolina.
I stay because this is my home. It’s the first and only home I’ve ever known. Like a great first love that keeps a piece of your heart forever, North Carolina will always have mine.
That’s why my heart breaks when I hear the negative attention my beloved North Carolina gets in the news. Because I don’t think of politics or negativity when I think of my home.
I think of the clerk at the convenient store who always remembers my name. I think of Paul, Cheetie, Steve and Ben who run my favorite rock club, and all my friends who have played on that stage at Kings.
I think of Jared, David and Ken and how they made Oak City Cycling Project into the most awesome community bike shop any town has ever known.
I think of the Hynes sisters and Epona and Oak, and how much they and their beautifully curated boutique support our local artists in Raleigh.
I think of Angela and Natalia, and how I could easily eat at Centro for every meal. I think of my colleagues at Toxic Free NC, and how Fawn, Anna, Alison, Lynne and I work hard everyday to protect our health and environment in North Carolina.
I feel that it’s my duty to stay here with my friends to fight the negativity with good and grace. It’s my duty to stay here and vote. To keep working alongside my colleagues to make this state better. To love the places and the people that make this state feel like home.
Together, we are the North Carolina I love. Together, we are the North Carolina I call home. Together, we are the reason why I always choose to stay.
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My friend Virginia started a conversation about why we shouldn’t give up on North Carolina, despite all the negative attention we’ve been getting in the news lately. This was my story about North Carolina and why I love it so much. Here are some more stories:
Please don’t give up on North Carolina by Virginia Ingram
Why my permanent address will always be North Carolina by Anna Adlard
The Humble Vale Becomes A Mountain by Elizabeth Bender Read
Coming Home by Liz Hester
Love letter to North Carolina by Alisa Ryan Herr
North Carolinian, Not by Birth by 100% by Choice by Eileen Gates
I like calling North Carolina Home by Geoff Gann
Home at Last by Angela Salamanca
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