Bite Your Tongue
Over the past few weeks an influx of negative comments and feedback has overtaken our message board.
It appears as if some inhabitants of this county are against any kind of change, be it positive or negative.
But change is not something we can avoid; it is not something we can prevent. Change happens whether we want it or not – and change is on the horizon.
We have talked about the emptiness and jawed about the history of Sistersville but we have yet to expound on the endless possibilities for the future of our towns. We have mourned the closing of Sistersville High School and complained about the location of the consolidated school since the early 90’s but in doing so, our intensified negativity has demeaned the pride we have in the current generation attending TCHS.
Every year students are graduating, packing up and leaving on the first bus out of town. With no jobs to be had, no promise for new business and no encouragement from the community, the new generation leaves Tyler County in search of something we are unable and unwilling to give them…a future.
We have become a bitter, negative bunch that will surely be conquered by the emptiness around us.
It’s a matter of pride. But the pride of Tyler County does not lie in the past; it is not a building that now sits empty; and it is not the location of the high school – it’s in every old and young citizen; it’s in the hearts of the life-long residents and the transplants. The pride of Tyler County is us and the thoughts, words, actions, habits and character that shape our destiny.
Are you proud of what you have become?
“Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” –Anonymous