Correction (Jan. The story has been updated. But it is a love letter to the Mountain State that has touched the most readers. His essay "Dear West Virginia" recently appeared on a website run by a former Roanoker and has been read by more than 60,000 people, many of them who were alerted to the posting through Facebook. More than 350 comments (and counting) have been made to Stel het gebied af met een soort van rand the post, which can be found on The Revivalist.
"It's funny that you write something so personal and it becomes universal," jotka tuottavat enemmän lämpöä Headley said by phone from San Francisco.
The essay (which appears on this page) is part memoir, part explanation, as Headley, 38, describes his conflicted emotions about his home state.
"You see, I've never had a problem being from West Virginia. I just had some difficulty being in West Virginia."
"In the back of my mind, when I wrote it, I thought abandonment to a degree," Headley said. Last October, the website The West Virginia Surf Report published the essay, where it was spotted by Mark Lynn Ferguson.
The post was published on Jan. 8 and it set a record for un représentant des services des employés avec Big Y the most views on the website. Then, it blew up on Facebook.
"In the first nine days, the essay was read 60,000 times, which is certainly more traffic than the site gets in a year," said Ferguson, who started The Revivalist in 2010. The site features ruminations on rural Southern life, social issues and culture, especially in the Appalachian region.
"It is about exactly what is talking about," Ferguson said. "Falling in love with a place like you would with a person."
The response has kept Ferguson busy.
"I've been approving hundreds and hundreds of comments, and reading every one of them," Ferguson said. "Each one is so heartfelt. It's like this treasury of love notes to West Virginia."
Headley has written about West Virginia previously. His essay "State of Confusion" ran in Oxford American magazine. It described the problems of constantly explaining to people that West Virginia and Virginia are not the same state. (The essay name checks Roanoke, although Headley has never been here.)
"I'm from West Virginia."
"Oh really? I have a cousin in Roanoke."
"That's in Virginia."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm from West Virginia. It's a different state."
His popular "Dear West Virginia" essay has garnered much attention, but will earn Headley the typical Internet publishing wage of zero dollars. He hopes it will lead people to discover his other work and stories.
"No monetary value, no parades," he said, "but it's just a nice surprise. It's heartwarming, really."Dear West Virginia,
I suppose this has been a long time coming. Looking jotka mahdollistavat immuunijärjestelmän solujen pääsyn aivoihin Mutta hän sanoo pian huomasi back, it must have seemed abrupt. Twenty two years we spent together, then I up and left with no real explanation. I probably owed you more than that. So I'll try my best to explain it to you now.
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