Our family lives in Cary, North Carolina.

Cary is both a suburb of Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Durham, and a growing jobs center in its own right, with a population of around 160,000. 

If Cary were in South Carolina it would be the largest community in the state. As it stands, we are the largest "town" east of the Mississippi. 

Cary is a great place to live, with friendly, hard-working people, the majority of whom moved here from somewhere else. We sometimes colloquially say that our town letters stand for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees," which has some truth to it, although perhaps less-so as our population has grown and become diversified. I have heard others say that Cary could stand for "Can't Annex Raleigh, Yet" which is humorous, and speaks to the rapid growth of a town that is now physically larger than Disneyworld.

We live in a suburban bubble of convenience.

Our kids' school and church are a ten minute drive away, as is our international airport and regional professional sports arena. We can literally be at ten different grocery stores within a ten minute drive of our house - ten different chains, not just different store locations - which is ridiculous. And it is about to get more ridiculous when Wegman's comes in and makes it 11 stores in 10 minutes. Southern Publix and northern Wegman's in the same town? Welcome to Cary.

While we do not live close enough to easily walk to any of these grocery stores, our family can walk to our neighborhood pool, a GoCary transit bus stop, a beautiful town park, an extensive greenway system, and even a 500 acre lake. We can also walk to a nice weekday breakfast/lunch cafe, although I get the sense that many people in our subdivision may not know this, since the easiest way to access it is via one of the greenways.

And, we know our neighbors and enjoy their company.

Our suburban bubble is by no means perfect, but we have no complaints to speak of here.

I mention the "bubble", because that is the context within which we are seeking to provide an upbringing where individual growth in respect and resilience can occur.