Ask a small-town kid what he wants to do with his life, and you’ll get some version of this: “Move anywhere but here!” From childhood, rural kids plot their escape for “as soon as they graduate.” They build a list of reasons as tall as their water tower. The drama. The gossip. The lack of opportunities. The lack of knowledge. I know because I was one of them, and I had my reasons like everyone else. And “as soon as I graduated,” I moved to the big city. Jonesboro, y’all. {sarcasm implied} I wanted far away from a town and a people that served me a less than perfect high school experience. I wanted to forget the “mean girls” who made me cry and needed distance from the rocky relationship with my parents. I wanted to leave behind a yearbook of bad memories and start a new chapter somewhere else.

Thankfully, I got all that I wanted and more. In four years, I got fresh beginnings, new friends, new memories, independence, a husband, an education and a stronger-than-ever relationship with my mom and dad. I graduated. I was married, pregnant and had a strong job prospect; yet there was one thing I wanted—to go home.

I’ve heard it said that small towns are like magnets; you just can’t stay away. And in a way, I think that’s true. After spending two years living in a neighboring town, even “close by” wasn’t close enough. So my husband, two daughters and I recently moved back to the very heart of my small town. If you’re not from one, you won’t understand the force that pulls people back. But I can tell you it’s really no mystery.

It’s the people who ask how you’re doing and spend 20 minutes really listening to find out. It’s the grade school teacher who also taught your dad and tells you stories about his mischief. It’s the ladies who still work at the bank after all these years and can’t believe that you, a little girl, now have your own little girls. It’s Mr. Ed’s fresh fruit stand, which is about as organic as it gets. It’s seeing “Senior ‘83” in spray paint and smiling because your mother-in-law painted it. It’s the yearly “Steamboat Days” festival, which brings back every person who’s ever moved on. It’s seeing the “mean girls” lovingly hold their babies or their husbands’ hands and realizing that high school was so long ago.

But most of all, for me, it’s being surrounded by a huge, close-knit family in walking distance on every side, and knowing that no matter what my girls face during adolescence, they’ll face it with a troop of cousins by their sides. You see, the force in this little town is so strong, it’s kept most of my family pulled in. My parents live two blocks from the building where they were born and just a few from the houses where they grew up.

I’m sure, to you, it seems ridiculous that a person could live in one place their whole life. As a teen, I would have been tempted to agree with you. But growing up—and becoming a mom—has zeroed in my priorities on one thing: what is best for my children. And if what’s best is a close family, safety, friendly neighbors and growing stronger through the drama, then I don’t want to be “anywhere but here.”

(Kelcie Huffstickler is Little Rock Family’s Community Editor for Cabot, where her husband is a firefighter. She and her family live just a hop, skip and a jump away in the little town of Des Arc. You can read more about their family on Kelcie’s blog, ThisBeautifulInheritance.com.)