I spent the first 18 years of my life born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI. Growing up, I couldn't wait to explore the city; I cherished those trips to a strange place called "downtown" where college kids and business people lived, worked and played. I couldn't wait to be dropped off in East Grand Rapids, notoriously filled with preppy families, and eat ice cream at Jersey Junction. Easttown was just a foreign place to me altogether, never able to go out there aside from an occasional snow-day breakfast at Wolfgang's.
Although at first I was excited about my city, I spent most of my high school career eager to get out. Everything to be explored had been, and Grand Rapids is a city where those 21 and up came to have fun. I couldn't get anywhere without driving and most of the activities my friends and I did focuses around grabbing breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee-- because there really wasn't anything else to do.
In less than three weeks, I move out of my house and into my dorm, onto the next chapter of my life. I've found myself strangely nostalgic, surprising myself at how dolorous I was becoming. As a disclaimer, while I am already nostalgic for a city I haven't even left yet, that is not to say that I would want to stay here instead of moving out and moving on. I just didn't realize that with the beginning of a new chapter comes a closing of the previous, and I didn't think I would care about that as much as I do. Soon, I won't be able to go down the road to my favorite trattoria and grab coffee, saying hi to my mom in the kitchen. The amount of times I'll drive to work in Easttown are dwindling, as are the times I'll be able to serve my regulars their usual drink orders. All those times I said "maybe next time!" to friends who wanted to hang out are catching up to me, because for all I know, there won't be a next time.
At the same time that I am preparing to say goodbye to my hometown, I'm learning to love it. All the aspects of Grand Rapids that I was trying to get away from, I realized that I loved. I love the distinct neighborhoods in GR, each with their own culture and people. The fact I have to drive everywhere turned out to be an advantage: driving downtown everyday to class my junior and senior year left me with 15 minutes clear my head, to think or to just sing along to whatever my favorite songs were at the moment. And Grand Rapids has a pretty amazing food scene, local coffee shops around each corner and any type of cuisine you could think of-- from Ethiopian, to Indian, to Chinese and Italian.
Realizing that I need to cherish the decreasing time I have left here has prompted me to pull out my planner and pencil in a specific time for each event, each good-bye that has to happen. The next three weeks have been meticulously planned, with work, times with friends and family, as well as work. And not one event is dreaded; hindsight really is 20/20, and I'm quickly realizing that I should've done half the things I've scheduled for this month over the course of my 18 years here. So take advantage of your hometown, boring or not, because when the time comes to leave, you'll realize that you're going to miss what you grew up having.
