I have spent the last week traveling for work in Southwest Virginia. I am convinced that this is the place where heaven touches the earth.
Unfortunately, most of my killer views were seen while driving, so there is no photographic evidence. Waking up int he mornings and seeing the mountains touching the sky, the light shining through the clouds, and the fog lifting from the trees had me believing that mother earth was touching the heavens. The light poured down from the clouds like skylights, looking like heaven itself was shining a flashlight down to see what was going on in the mountains.
For various reasons I won’t bore you with, this week was hard. My job isn’t easy and the travel this week will wear anyone out.
Looking at the sky, the mountain views and connecting people with opportunities to better this part of the state had me with a newfound appreciation and love for my job. While it’s hard and I often feel that most people looking at it from an external perspective do not appreciate me, I know that I’m doing one of the coolest things anyone can do in their 20s. I’m literally being paid to travel to the furthest corner of the state to talk to kids about a place I love. I’m eating at hole in the wall restaurants in small towns. I’m talking to locals about college, life, opportunities, and in exchange they are telling me the hole in the wall places to eat, asking me what the hell my Tide to Go pen is, and giving me their life stories.
Wherever I go in life, I will leave pieces of me. There’s a huge piece of me at home. There’s a huge piece of me in Staunton. But there’s also going to be a little piece of me in Southwest Virginia, simply because of the time I have spent here last travel season and moving into this travel season.
#SWVA (yes, they have the stickers for your car that say this)