I wasn’t born in eastern Kentucky. I moved here and made it my home.
    I first came as a young, 20-something because opportunity brought me here: a job, in my field.  I stayed because I thought the landscape was beautiful and the people opened their hearts to me immediately. I found compelling and passionate people with the most fascinating stories to tell here.
        Then, I fell in love with a mountain man and I knew I would never leave – I never want to leave. The hills are my home and the people are now my people.
     But opportunities can be few and far between in this region for professional growth. I admit I spent a few years bemoaning my perceived lack of prospects. From time to time I let my frustration tempt me to look elsewhere – and dream about life in another, bigger city where there are more ready-made career options. But I could never leave. So, I decided to stay and find a way to achieve what I wanted.
    And I have, through lots of encouragement and patience from loved ones, luck and that gift of gab that is both a blessing and a curse. I found opportunities when I looked hard enough and made many of my own – I found lots of people who understood and were willing to take a chance on me.
     Eventually I remembered what it is like to truly dream and to use good, old fashioned work and a little imagination to make it right here in eastern Kentucky. Life is good and I am full of hope for the future.
    My husband says I became a true Eastern Kentuckian in that I accepted what I didn’t have and then used what was around me to patch together something functional – it might not look pretty but it works.
    But I’m not special around here. Many of our most successful community and business leaders chose the “harder path” of staying because, like me, they didn’t want to leave. They wanted to share their ideas, their dreams, their vision of success, and their skills with the people right here that they love. So, they fought and sacrificed and invented to do it. And then, they looked around to see how they could help their neighbor do it, too.
    That’s why I’m not surprised Braidy Industries chose our little corner of the world to change the rest of it. I have known for a long time that the people are special here – that the indefinable characteristic – that everyone recognizes in the exceptional but can’t put their finger on – exists in abundance here.  
    It’s embodied in the cheerleading empire that has spanned 27 years, which first caught Craig Bouchard’s curiosity. It’s the same gritty resourcefulness that drove the first pioneers here and allowed them to stay. And it is what will make Braidy succeed here like it wouldn’t have anywhere else in the world.
    I for one can’t wait to watch it happen.