The Grass is NOT Greener on the Other Side: A Word for Local Graduates
“What’s that awful smell?” – I have lived on the rural east side of Newton County for over 25 years, and there are still days where I walk out of my front door, and the thick, foul air slaps me in the face. This overwhelming odor is nature’s own fertilizer…chicken manure. Several times a year, the local farmers spread tons of fowl poop on their fields to give the soil much needed nitrogen and organic matter to encourage healthy crop growth. While the stench can be unbearable, there is a noticeable difference between the fields that use poo and those that don’t. (My in-laws who own Hodges Farms call it, “The smell of money!”)
In the past, I was a guest speaker at a leadership conference for Student Council officers from our local high schools. Year after year I would hear kids say, “I can’t wait to graduate and get out of this town!” They held an excitement and anticipation for leaving their hometown and finding greener pastures. Whatever Newton County possessed; it wasn’t enough to compete with the ideal they had created in their mind of the next destination. Truthfully, even as adults we sometimes fall prey to the lure of the green grass on the other side of the fence. We think, “that job would be better than my job” or “I’d be happier with that person.”
I encouraged those student leaders to take advantage of their youth and their seemingly endless opportunities. I urged them to spread their wings…go see the world…get a degree from a college in another town, but not to forget where they came from. Leave for a minute, but don’t give up on Newton County.
The grass is NOT greener on the other side; the grass is greener where there’s chicken manure. In other words, your crop yield is based on your effort and ingenuity. Breaking up the earth is time-consuming difficult work. Spreading fertilizer is messy and it stinks! Keeping natural obstacles like animals and weeds out of the field takes diligence and careful attention. And a little favor from God always helps. You don’t have to go looking for a greener pasture somewhere distant from your hometown. If you want a green pasture: work the soil; plant the seeds; spread the manure; pull the weeds; and pray for rain.
The current and future graduates in Newton County have never had more opportunity to create new and vibrant-green pastures than today. Sure, some will venture off to big schools in big cities and make a big future. But the local opportunities are big, bigger than ever, and world-class!
If post-secondary education is the route for the graduating senior, Newton County is home to several amazing and diverse higher education institutions such as Georgia State University, Georgia Piedmont Technical College, Troy University, and the prestigious Oxford College of Emory University. And with many universities offering online options, the opportunity to begin a career immediately out of high school while taking courses online has never been easier.
For some students, the next step might be right into the workplace, and Newton has never been more prepared. The vision of trailblazers on the Joint Development Authority (JDA) paved the way for Stanton Springs which has lured big high-tech and bio-pharma industries such as Takeda, Meta, and now Rivian. Stanton Springs is also home of the $14 million dollar Georgia BioScience Training Center part of the Technical College System of Georgia and QuickStart. These great companies join the already established corporations housed in Newton: Bridgestone, General Mills, Pactiv, SKC, Dart, and Lidl. Then there is the growing Cinelease Studios – Three Ring television and film production campus for the booming entertainment and content creation industry in Newton and surrounding areas. And just recently Archer announced their location to Covington. Archer is a ground-breaking, state-of-the-art, electrical, vertical-takeoff aircraft company. As Jay Bailey, Chairman of the Newton Chamber of Commerce, said, “Archer brings the space-age technology of the Jetsons into our backyard.” The number of varied, quality, high-paying jobs right here in Newton County is staggering. There are plenty of opportunities to have green grass on this side of the fence.
I remember being a senior in high school. I couldn’t wait to leave this little town behind me. I just knew that Athens, GA would be my forever-town. And yes, there were many good times in Athens, but the pull of my hometown was just too strong. Maybe it is the tug of the immediate family, or the myriad of other relational connections through school, church, sports, and part-time jobs, but what other town would I have the same established relationships? When you come back home there are organic opportunities that simply won’t exist in other places where you are starting from scratch. Covington-Newton has a unique culture and if you grow up here, there’s a DNA that is inside you, that beckons to you. It makes you want to come back and be a part of the progress and help shape the inevitable change as we morph into a New Newton County.
My daughter, Anna, is graduating from Eastside High School this year. And she can’t wait to get out of this little town and find her way in the great big world. I just hope there’s enough DNA in her to pay heed to the tug and find her way back to Newton County one day. I’d love for her to be a part of a 200-year-old community and help shape the next version of the New Newton County. But wherever she lands, whatever patch of ground finds her, she’ll need to grab a shovel and make sure that chicken manure gets worked into the soil. It’ll stink for a bit, and it’ll be hard work, but there is where she’ll find greener pastures, not on the other side of the fence.
Trey Bailey is District 1 representative on the Newton County School Board. He also serves as executive pastor of Eastridge Church in Covington. Interact with him at his blogsite TreyBailey.us.
This OpEd was originally published in The Covington News, Wednesday May 3, 2023.
