Reasons Why I love Citrus County

Without further adieu below is the first column I wrote for the Chronicle. The theme of my weekly column is "Reasons Why" (I love Citrus County....there are so many of them!) Hope you enjoy!

Reasons Why #1
by Meredith Linley
I’m an inherent listmaker. Whether it’s in my head, on a post-it note, or on my blackberry, I’m always making lists. When faced with any decision, large or small, I always make a list of pros and cons. So recently when I was faced with a decision to take a job in Citrus County and relocate home; my gut reaction was to make my faithful pro/con list.
After deciding that having a Starbucks nearby was not a necessity – do you know what happened? All I could put on my con list was that there wasn’t a Target within 5 miles of my house. As my mother quickly pointed out, “Meredith, there’s always Target.com.” Mothers are very smart.
Literally, there isn’t enough time or paper for me to list the reasons why I love Citrus County. It’s mildly pathetic actually. I’m convinced I’m the only 28 year old on this planet who has been wearing an ear to ear grin because I got to move back home; home to Citrus County. Of course it’s icing on the cake that I accepted a fantastic job with the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce.
Throughout my adult life (the whopping decade it has been thus far) my end goal was to land a job in Citrus County that would enable me make this area an even better place than it was when I grew up. To have the ability to give back to a community that gave so much to me as a youth and help create a community for my young daughter. As you can assume this was near the top of my pro list.
The longer I resonated the idea of moving in my head, the longer my list of pros got. From my closest friends who live here, to my home church, the incredible view of Kings Bay from Cracker’s at sunset, and the thought of volunteering at my alma mater CRHS – the list was getting a little out of control. So even though I did thoughtfully and prayerfully consider it, in the end it was a no-brainer.
Now I’ve made the move and am back home. Gone was the life I led in the metropolis of Jacksonville, where I had been living and running political campaigns for the last five years. Now I’m here in Citrus County, the heart of the Nature Coast and the only place that has truly captured my heart. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.
The best part of my pro/con list, is that long after the decision was made the pro list continues to grow. Granted, there isn’t a Target in the area, but there are several homegrown businesses here that I’d much rather support than Target any day. Every day something else strikes me that deserves a ranking on my (outrageously long) list of reasons why I love Citrus County.
One of the best so far was seeing a local deli on a Saturday afternoon with the CLOSED sign in its window. Outsiders may see this as an omen of bad economic times. Us local’s we saw the small handwritten sign under the CLOSED sign that simply read “Gone Fishin”. We understood, and we smiled.