THE FRONT PORCH: The place that kept me

By Dakota Baker, RealWV

Why do you stay in West Virginia?

I feel like this is a question most of us have been asked, or even asked ourselves, at least once in our lives.

We talk about the declining population, the lack of opportunities, the jobs that seem to disappear faster than they appear. We hear people say there’s nothing here, that the only way to build a future is to leave. Yet, for the most part, many of us choose to stay.

Maybe some of us are too scared to step into the unknown. Maybe this is where our roots run too deep to pull up. Or maybe it’s something we can’t quite explain — a feeling that this place, despite all its flaws, still feels like home.

When I was younger, I always said I’d never stay. I was leaving the first chance I got. I wanted to see somewhere bigger, somewhere different. And while I left my hometown for a few short months, I never actually made it out of West Virginia. Instead, I found my way back home.

Back to the roads I know by heart, where I can take almost any back road to avoid traffic. Back to the drive to my grandma’s house, where purple flowers bloom along both sides of the road every summer. Back to the mountains that somehow make me feel small and grounded at the same time. Back to where almost everyone I love still lives.

For all the reasons people have for leaving, I found just as many reasons to stay. And maybe that’s the thing about West Virginia. It isn’t perfect, and most of us know that better than anyone. But sometimes home isn’t the place that offers the most. Sometimes it’s the place that still feels like it has a piece of you, no matter how far you try to go.

For this Front Porch, I’d like you to share the reasons you stay.