This past June I graduated with a fancy degree. While there were jobs-o-plenty, I had trouble finding any that both interested me and could support even a meager life in the big city of Seattle. At my mother’s behest, I started looking at some jobs in Pacific County, the place I called home for most of my childhood. Before I knew it, I was offered a job — basically my dream job — with a respectable salary. The only problem was it meant moving back home.

If there’s one mantra Ilwaco High School has (or at least had in the early to mid ‘10s) it’s “Move away right after graduation!” I still think this is good advice for some kids. Personally, I doubt I would have even attended college if I had stayed on the peninsula for even a year post-graduation. I do want to clarify that there are plenty of kids (with far more motivation than myself) that this isn’t a problem for. Staying on the peninsula can be a great and life-giving choice for some. Anyway, an unintended side effect of this good-intentioned “move away!” motto is stigma.

Pull Quote

I’m not saying the peninsula is a utopia — we have probably more than our fair share of problems. But I am saying that our community is worth effort and improvement.

This stigma was the main barrier between me and accepting this dream job back home. Even though I would be moving back home for a real career job, it felt like moving back to the peninsula would be publicly declaring that I was a failure, that I couldn’t make it in the “real world” or the “big city.” As someone with ever-present anxiety, I tried to tell myself that this stigma was all in my head, no one would really think that. Grasping tightly to this idea, I decided to take the job. Unfortunately, it was not all in my head.

When people found out I moved back home, I had people from high school reach out and ask if I was all right. What happened? Did I have a breakdown? Or perhaps a breakup? Why did I move back? I naively thought that, when you get a job, people are happy for you. Rarely, does it cause people to be concerned about your well being. I ran into an acquaintance of my parents, who asked why I was back. When I informed them, “Oh I got a job!” They pushed, “How are we feeling about that? Is this a good job or…?” While no words finished this statement, a lot was said by the silence. I spoke with a group of high schoolers, and after they heard my work and educational experience, one of them asked, “So why did you come back here?” While I expected some criticism of my choice to move back home, I did not expect so much of it to be said to my face.

I went to high school with a lot of brilliant kids — kids who now work in very challenging fields, like nursing and teaching (fields our area is having difficulty recruiting people in). Most of these folks have not moved back here. Now, there’s a lot of reasons people live in other places. I can’t say the fear of being perceived as a failure is the main thing keeping young people from coming back to the peninsula. However, we’re not giving kids a good argument to come back. If we’re constantly implying that people should leave our community as soon as they can, we’re saying this place isn’t worth living in. I’m not saying the peninsula is a utopia — we have probably more than our fair share of problems. But I am saying that our community is worth effort and improvement. Who will continue to put effort in to improve our community if not our young people?

I guess overall what I’m trying to say is, adults, take pride in our community and what we’ve accomplished and built. Kids, it’s OK to come home, we’d love to have you here.

ABBY BENTLEY

Ocean Park