I first heard about Anthem in early '99. My in-laws, who retired to Sun City Grande several years earlier, dropped a not-so-subtle hint via an oversized full color brochure, express mailed to our Stamford Connecticut home. At that time, I was enjoying the fruits from building my construction business for the past several years, and our recently remodeled home. In other words, my was firmly entrenched in our Connecticut lifestyle, and I would no sooner move to Arizona than wear hot-pink Lederhosen in the public square. Sorry about THAT visual...
The following October, we flew to the Valley of the Sun, so our girls (one and two years old at the time) could spend time with the grandparents. My wife and kids were two stay for three weeks, with me just coming for the last week. While they were gone, I spent my free time building a super-duper wall unit for the kid's room, as a surpise for their return. I mention this to emphisize the fact that I had absolutely no intention of leaving my house, let alone my state.
Well, my wife and her parents had other ideas. They spent most of the two weeks first touring Anthem, and then devising a plan to get me to buy in to an "Extreme Life Makeover". Long story short, they had picked out an Anthem neighborhood, lined up a job interview for me, and scheduled some very nice golf outings to help wear down my resistance.
To tell you the truth, much of their scheming was completely unneccessary. Just moments after passing through the waterfalls at the entrance to Anthem, I was hooked. (Be careful of those waterfalls, rumor has it that they not only have great powers of persuasion, they can also induce fertility- we conceived our son, shortly after signing our residential purchase contract!)
Long story short, within three months I had sold the Connecticut house and business, and was driving a truck full of our family possessions through those sparkling waterfalls. Smartest thing I was ever coerced into! I've been here for nearly nine years, and Anthem is truly my "hometown".
People come here for the lifestyle and ammenities, but its the sense of community that keeps them here and compels them to bring their family and friends! While no place is Utopia, if you choose to be happy, Anthem will make that choice a breeze!
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