School’s out for summer and watching a handful of my classmates’ children graduate brought up a variety of introspective moments.
In 2006, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life other than writing and that led to several instances of major-hopping and refining my passions and interests into something akin to marketable career.
And I’m not going to lie, all I wanted to do was leave the area and experience someplace new but ultimately landed on sticking by locally at Wharton County Junior College to get my associate degree before transferring my credits to Angelo State University.
Still, as I progressed through various college atmospheres, I spent a good chunk of time explaining where Matagorda County and Bay City were at in relation to Houston, Galveston, and other major cities.
I remember my out-of-town friends getting excited when I told them how close to the coast I grew up and they expressed envy for basically having a beach in my backyard.
Back then, that’s about the only positive thing I could brag about – everything else just seemed too boring and secondary.
After all, how do you tell someone who is from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex or Austin area about what’s “cool” when you’re all college aged?
And I get it now that some of it sprang from taking our local features for granted because I grew up with them.
I also think there’s a certain fa
tigue that comes with being so used to one’s hometown that we might overlook the unique or possibly interesting things for newbies to experience.
Luckily, things are shifting upward and forward for our area and we’re getting noticed on the state and national stage for it, too.
Just last Sunday, Matagorda County was mentioned in the Houston Chronicle in an article about Texas’s economic hurdles.
While the mention was only in two paragraphs it was still more than I expected considering how broad of a topic that was covered.
It was noted that our county is becoming an industrial highlight of the Gulf Coast and I can see the impacts it’s having on my hometown.
The article mentioned Tenaris, Air Liquide, and HIF Global by name, but I know there are several other industries building and/or looking at our area.
We’ve grown enough to get a Starbucks, Marshalls, and Chick-fil-A and we have several subdivisions full of homes in process.
Not to mention the list of businesses in their preliminary phases, too!
I know that the drive is to have local graduates return home to our communities and further increase our tax base along with enticing new folks to come in in the meantime.
However, I’m just not sure if there are enough amenities to offer or lure those young adults back just yet.
As it stands, we’ve got time – at least 2-4 years – until some of those children can purchase a home or even find a career that supports the lifestyle they want.
Either way, we’re going to have to work harder at playing up our strengths and marketing our county.
After all, if you don’t understand your target audience, however are you going to reel them in?