We were roommates at Virginia Tech. Her studies combined home economics and business, with an emphasis on fashion. I was an English major. Feel free to roll your eyes.

With no concrete strategy, our plan was to end up in Paris. I would be a foreign correspondent for some major publication. She would be a fashion designer.

This did not happen. 

I came back to Charleston, where we both had grown up, right after graduation. After a brief teaching stint in Virginia, she came home, too.

And here we remain.

She held several jobs before landing with one of the Kanawha Valley's biggest employers. She has risen through the ranks to become a top executive. I recently passed the 35-year mark with the Daily Mail.

Neither of us spills tears of regret into our moonshine.

We lead satisfying lives and feel lucky to have been able to pursue careers while remaining close to family. About once every five years, we recall that Paris plan and laugh. 

This week the Daily Mail published a poignant essay by a displaced West Virginian who did follow up on such a dream. Jason Headley, now 38, made his way to California, where he apparently is happy now, but he misses his home state terribly.

He wept as he left but felt a tug he couldn't resist.  

We sought permission to run the piece after coming across it on the Internet, where it has attracted tens of thousands of readers and hundreds of comments.

 Some people saw it as an indictment of West Virginia. This obviously bright young man had to leave because his prospects here were dim.

That was not my interpretation.

In every state, and likely in every country, young people dream of an exotic elsewhere.

This is not West Virginia's problem.

Rather than wring our hands over how to hang onto our children, we should encourage them to do the best they can for themselves, wherever that may take them.  

My brother and his wife left Charleston a short time after college graduation. They went to Baltimore, Houston, London and back to Houston. They've led interesting lives, but they, too, miss West Virginia.

However, my sister-in-law once told me that her mother never discouraged their wanderlust. She just advised her daughter to stash away enough money for a plane ride home in case the need arose.

I vowed to be that kind of mom.   

We should be proud of those who summon the courage to go and forge successful lives for themselves. Many of our native sons and daughters are making contributions in their fields in ways they could not have done if they had stayed.

These days, travel to distant corners of the earth is not only possible, but fairly easy.

A co-worker's son left for Korea right after his graduation from Marshall. He had never been on an airplane before he took that international flight. He has been teaching English to kids in that country for five years now.

I think of him with awe and admiration.

Pearl Buck grew up in Pennsylvania, but West Virginia claims her because she was born in Pocahontas County. Do we wish that Nobel Prize winner hadn't gone to China?

I recently crossed paths with a woman who had moved to Charleston from Savannah, Ga. She and her husband, a retired military officer, came here for a reunion.

They fell in love with the place. Four weeks later, they signed a contract on a house.

They have found this state a beautiful, convenient place to live, closer to their children in the Northeast but not too close.

She commented specifically on the friendliness of the people. As a military spouse, she has moved many times and should be a good judge of that.

Still, West Virginia does have a challenge. We do need more young people. It just doesn't matter where they were born.

They will come if we create the right opportunities - jobs. We all can play a role in that, if only to vote for clear-headed candidates.    

Meanwhile, I'm thankful for a job with a six-minute commute down a tree-lined hillside.

As I cross the South Side Bridge, I see our jewel of a city set along the sparkling Kanawha River and realize how lucky I am.

It may not be the Seine, but it suits me just fine.

Friend is editor and publisher of the Daily Mail. She may be reached at 348-5124 or nan...@dailymail.com.