Meet Stephen Hartle, a physicians assistant and father of (soon to be) 3 children.
Stephen works and is raising his family in Barrow County. He currently lives in Statham with his wife, Klair, and his two children, Charlie and Bailey. They are expecting their third, a daughter, in a few months. We’d like to thank Stephen very much for sitting down with us to discuss his experience living in Barrow County.
Enjoy our interview with Stephen
What brought you to Barrow County and where do you live now?
We currently live in Statham, Georgia, just about 15 minutes from Athens.
What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Part of it was boredom, actually.
So I started out as a finance major at Kennesaw state. I was almost done with school about a semester away. After some internships with a wealth management firm, I just wasn’t satisfied with what I had seen and was a little bored with it.
Going into school, I didn’t exactly have a solid idea of what I wanted to do. I think I went in just saying, I’m going to do business but with no real true strategy to that.
And then from there I started looking at the medical field.
I started doing some shadowing and physical therapy, work with physical therapists for a little while. And then I started working with a physician assistant with orthopedics, which I really enjoyed and loved and ultimately that led me into changing my career path.
Eventually, I ended up changing my major, doing an extra year of school, and then going to Grad school to become a physicians assistant.
So now back to Barrow County. What is your favourite part about living here?
Honestly, if I gave you the number one answer, it’s going to be the proximity to our church. We go to Ebenezer Baptist Church.
I would say that’s one of the biggest things for us. Our life is centralized around church and God. It’s a really great church and it’s grown a lot since we’ve been there over the last four years.
We’ve certainly enjoyed living in Barrow. It’s honestly been a pleasant surprise. It is still small but growing and still has a great atmosphere that we like.
Do you have a favorite restaurant?
I’m a big fan of Smokin’ Po Boys. And Magnolia House was one of my first favorites when we moved here.
So we’ve been there and I enjoy that. I mean, we’ve been to a few, I just don’t know that I have one that I would say is my favorite.
Who is the most interesting person you met?
He might hate me for putting him on but I’m going to say Chris Garmon.
So we go to church with Chris and he’s grown up in Barrow and has a farm in town.
Chris is a great guy and literally knows everything. Just ask a question and he knows how to do it, knows somebody that knows how to do it and can help you out with almost anything.
He’s a good servant-hearted guy with just an impressive wealth of knowledge on all kinds of subject areas.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
When I think of home, I think a family is one of the biggest things. And Barrow is where we started our family.
The first house that my wife and I bought together was in Barrow, right there in Winder and that’s where we started growing our family. It’s certainly where we plan to stay and raise our soon-to-be three children.
If you could choose anybody alive or dead, that you could have lunch with who would you choose? Not a relative.
Tough question. I can think of 3 people who I’d like to play golf with.
I’d have to go with the greats. Tiger Woods would have to be on there. That’s an obvious answer. But then I would go with someone like Arnold Palmer and probably Jack Nicklaus.
Who would win? Take their prime and your best game ever?
I’d go with Tiger Woods and then maybe Arnie. But I’d probably still finish last even on my best day.
Someone told me you are a pretty good golfer yourself.
I used to shoot under par when I was able to play every day. With a busy work schedule and our children, that doesn’t happen as often.
We were state champions in my senior year of high school. It’s fun to say I have a state championship in Georgia 2005. That is a fun memory of mine.
Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
In five years I hope to see myself debt free. If you ask my wife we could be looking at four or five kids. She comes from a large family. And I love that lifestyle so that’s ultimately my game plan.
Although…kids might complicate the debt free plan as they don’t exactly go together!
We hope you enjoyed learning about Stephen and his story.
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