~~~Traveled for a while and really missed Tennessee!!!~~~ (Chattanooga, Kingsport: home, school)

[RNinTN]

HELLO! This is my first day ever posting on this site, I just discovered it about an hour ago. I am going to ramble on for a moment......let's see............what do I want to ramble about.....ok.

When I realized that Tennessee would always be home for me!

I graduated from nursing school in 2004, worked in Chattanooga for a year, and then decided to try out travel nursing. I have always lived in or close to Chattanooga (I lived and grew up in Whitwell until I was 18, then moved to Chatt.) and I could not wait to venture out to see what other areas were like.
The first travel assignment that I took was in Maine from October 1-December 31, 2005. I knew that the weather was colder up north, but I did not realize how different it was. Maine is a beautiful state, but late November-early December I found myself searching for Tennessee websites online. I even checked the weather in Chattanooga daily, since the weather in Maine every day was SNOW!
After being gone from Chattanooga for 3 months I decided to take a travel position up in Kingsport, TN. This is a beautiful area. I had imagined it to be more "city" than it is, and I could not get enough of the "Purple Cow"!!! I ended up working in Kingsport for 9 months, but the 4 hour drive back to Chattanooga once a week was tiring (especially if there was a VOLS game).
Next I decided to try out Boston. I was only there for a week, it was a "nursing strike". There are alot of cool things in Boston, alot of history, great food, good beer..............but it was nice for a week and then I was happy to go home.
Finally I went to Arizona for some RN agency work for a few weeks (early December). I started in Phoenix-it was 85-90 degrees, the sky loked like an orange haze, and there was no grass to be seen for miles! This may be normal for the people who live there, but I was amazed! I did see some Christmas decorations and lights in peoples yards, hanging on their cactus plants. The traffic was pretty bad as well, I would definitely say worse than I have ever seen in this state or GA. My last wek in AZ I drove through the desert (I was so excited, this was my first time ever seeing the desert), up the mountain to a SMALL city called Payson. My last day there it snowed 3-4 inches............I was outta there!!!!!!!!!!!!

I realized after I stopped traveling how LUCKY I am to have always lived in such a beautiful city and state! And there is so much to do here with the mountains, rivers, etc.....we have great weather (okay, except for the humid as hell summers).