It's a Purple Thing

When I meet people who are new to Cartersville, one of the first questions I ask is “Why did you choose to move to Cartersville?”  Their answers always fascinate me because I was born and raised in Cartersville and have lived and worked here most of my adult life.  While some folks state that their jobs brought them to Cartersville, most have shared that they are here because the first time they drove through town, they fell in love and knew they were “home.”  

 Now the tables have turned and I have been asked a similar question –Why do you teach in Cartersville?  For some reason, this has been a very difficult question for me to answer.  I spent considerable time pondering my many reasons before I could sit down at my computer and begin to put my thoughts into words.  As I shared earlier, I was born and raised here in Cartersville.   Although my parents and I moved away for a few years, we returned to Cartersville just in time for me to begin second grade at the Douglas Street School.  I graduated from Cartersville High School in 1981.    During my ten year “career” as a student, I also attended the Cherokee Avenue School, Summer Hill Junior High, and the new elementary/middle school on Etowah Drive (now known as Cartersville Primary School).  Even as a child, I recognized something deep and profound in the fact that I was walking down some of the same hallways and sitting in some of the same classrooms  that my father, uncles and grandfather had occupied before me.  We shared some of the same teachers.  We sang the same Alma Mater.   My high school diploma had the same Cartersville High School emblem as theirs.  I was participating in a deep-rooted family tradition – a Cartersville tradition.    

I share this brief history of my childhood with you simply to explain -- I teach in Cartersville because honoring family traditions is very important to me.  I teach in Cartersville because I see the community as an extension of my family, therefore, I feel that the children who walk through my classroom door are my children.  I teach in Cartersville because I cannot imagine teaching anywhere else.  I teach in Cartersville because, like Dorothy, I’ve learned …“there is no place like home.”