Becca and William Walker moved to Chattanooga after marrying in May 2013.Before they married almost 10 months ago, William and Becca Walker discussed where they might want to live.
They had just graduated from school — Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Ala., for him, and Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy in Johnson City, Tenn., for her — so their options were fairly open.
Nashville was one choice since many of his friends live in the city. But, while she had no issues with any of them, they decided moving there would make her feel obligated to become friends with not only his buddies, but their wives and girlfriends.
“We felt like it would be her being forced into a group of friends,” the 26-year-old William says.
William and Becca chose Chattanooga in part because of the somewhat-neutral proximity to their hometowns of Cleveland and Cookeville, Tenn. Still too busy being newlyweds to make many friends, they have talked about meeting new people and some of the speed bumps involved in managing friends as a married couple. Part of that awareness has come from watching married couples around them, Becca says.