Rachel Oesch didn't expect to enjoy living in Chattanooga. She's glad she was wrong.

"I was nervous about coming here, but I love it," she said, walking barefoot across her front lawn on a sunny afternoon. "I know all my neighbors, there's a good quality of life here, and I love the way the town has so many great things to do."

As the morning news anchor for WDEF -TV, Chattanooga's CBS affiliate, Ms. Oesch has had plenty of opportunity to become acquainted with the community since moving here five years ago. Broadcasting is what brought her to the Scenic City, having previously worked in Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Texas. She says it's the only work she's ever wanted to do.

"When I was a little bitty girl, I'd watch Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley do The Today Show. Anything Jane Pauley said I would repeat. I always knew I'd be a broadcast journalist, and I always wanted to be an anchor."

Ms. Oesch believes that local news programs serve an important purpose. "People need to know what's going on in their community. You can't get community news from a national program, which is why we try to do a relaxing morning show that lets everyone know the world didn't blow up last night, whether traffic is bad, or if the kids need to wear a scarf when they go out to school. I know I like to know what's going on, and I like to be at the center of what's happening. You get to do that in television."

She admits, though, that the TV news business is associated with several misconceptions, the most common being "that it's glamorous. It's not. TV is fluff and mirrors. It isn't real. And there's no celebrity to it. I'm not Jane Pauley. I've never felt that kind of thing. If you see me in the grocery store, you can stop and say hi."

Away from work, Ms. Oesch, the mother of two daughters, doesn't watch much television."The problem is that everything is on too late for me." She enjoys playing the piano handed down from her grandmother, but travel is probably her favorite activity, with France as her favorite destination. She lived there for two years and has a degree in French.

"All my life I wanted to go to France, and when I was 16, I saved all my money and went for two weeks with a tour group. But I hated going as part of a big group." Eventually returning on her own, she found herself amazed by "the whole different thought process. People think nothing of taking three hours for lunch every day. What matters is good company, good eating, and good discussion, and I loved it more than anything else in the world. (France) is the country of my soul. Every couple of years I go back, and I hope my children will go."

Parisian ideas are constantly with her. "My idea of a really great time is good friends, good conversation, and a good meal, the kind that makes you want to bring out the best stuff you have: white tablecloths, dripping candles, all of that. I love beautiful things. I always have. I drink my Coke out of wine glasses. Why not? Life is too short and only comes along once."

Ms. Oesch says she believes that possessions aren't the key to a happy life. "I don't have to have a lot of stuff to enjoy my life. So many of us are running around trying to have the best of everything, and they are some of the most unhappy human beings you'll ever meet."

Priority, she added, should be given to "remaining grounded and keeping things in order: God, family, and work. I think spirituality is so important, having some kind of personal relationship with God. That came from my parents. I'm from an intense Christian home where nothing was more important."

She continues to admire such values in people, although "there's no one person I put up on a pedestal. I would love to have the contentment my best friend has, the drive my father has, or to be as honest as my husband is, but there's no one person I'd try to be like.

"As I've gotten older, I'm not looking to be someone else. I'm more comfortable with who I am and trying to improve that. More than anything else in the world, I don't want to lose who I am. I want to be able to keep the identity of myself, to be able to like who I am if I had to be stranded alone on a desert island."

by Buddy Roberts