Paintsville is a town that lies in Eastern Kentucky. According to statistics from 2016, Paintsville has 4,203 residents. Paintsville’s area is about 50.42 square miles. Paintsville used to be a city on the rise, however it has fell from grace. Regulations on coal has forced jobs to leave, and people to leave. For generations people have been told coal would be leaving eventually, but nobody ever believed it. Growing up in former generations, people never desired to work in the coal industry, but they always kept it as a number on fail-safe choice. Now that coal is gone, the first option for the newer generations is to leave. Our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our teachers all tell us if we want to live a happy, successful, financially secure life, we must graduate college, then move out of the region. Those who advise us, the youth, to leave Paintsville have family members who are going to either Pikeville, Louisville, Lexington, or even out of state in order to work. These families are loosing time with their loved ones because they can’t permanently move because they can’t sell a house and they can’t finance a new one in a different area. Nobody is looking for houses in the region because of the same reasons people are wanting to leave. Paintsville is also struggling with addiction. According to a social worker in this region one third of the population in Paintsville suffers from substance abuse. Paintsville may be home to me, but it feels like myself and my generation must leave in order to have a financially secure and a happy life.