I Have Been Inspired...

by Bri-guy's post on his MySpace blog.

Brian Hoekstra is a fellow Grand Valley State University Laker. He's one of the guys who lived next door to us (in 15A) at Laker Village our sophomore year at GVSU. Bri's great...recently married, a journalist, currently working in Grand Rapids doing something (?) with digital jukeboxes. Bri-guy's latest post says the following about living in Michigan:

What a good-good time to live in the area. The Wings, The Pistons, Lake Michigan in the warmer months...solid gold! I know that I have friends who live out west that blah and blah about the mountains and the artistic undertones that their community supports, but really, West Michigan is still stayin pretty fly if I can say so....Regardless of the army of churches that keep a watchful conservative eye, we have natures beauty, event centers, small bars, and the wonderous cities of chicago, detroit, milwaukee etc within our curious reach.

(Western Michigan is full of Dutch-Christian Reformed folks whose influence tends to guide politics in the area, even in the public universities and newspapers. The culture and beliefs of the church are very much a piece of the character of the Greater Grand Rapids area.)

Reading that short little paragraph has made me so much more excited and relieved to be going back to the comforts of home. It really reminds me of all of the reasons that I loved to live in Michigan and how much fun we always have in the G-Rap. It's silly, but was exactly what I needed to remember.

I have been excited yet also strangely nervous about moving home. The problem is that the West has taken ahold of me. This whole thing is a sick and twisted Catch-22: being in the mountains feels like home, but there's a void where my family and good friends should be and when I'm home with those important people I've lost the spirit of the west and the barren skyline seems to be missing a few thousand feet of raised land.

There were a few factors that helped me to make the decision about coming home. The major ones are listed below: (I never knew I was so much of a list maker until this whole blog thing)

• Right before I graduated from HSU my sister Sara called me, she sounded pretty upset and she said "Erin, now that you're done with school, you're coming home, right? Because you've been gone for too long."
  
• I miss my family - especially once a month on the Sunday they celebrate birthdays when I call home so they can pass the phone around to my grandparents, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins and I realize I'm the only one missing from the festivities.
• I want my nephew to know who I am and I miss seeing his face every day.
  
• After the parks commission called to offer me the job my sister Julie called me and said my dad was excited about the prospect of me coming home.
• My dad called me shortly after Julie's call and said Julie was excited about the possibility of being able to train for the marathon with me.
• Tesser is moving back to BR and her husband Russ is already living there.
• My mom kept emailing me after the offer to see what I thought, and then she gently continued to ask if I had made up my mind until I announced that I had.
  
• Corey Rogers is pregnant!!! It will be great to be able to spend some time with Cor and her husband Glen while they take this journey through a very important time in their lives.
• My cousin Chad is doing his optometry internship in Big Rapids this summer.
• Actually spending time with Katie Murray instead of just gossiping on the telephone.
  
• My sister Corinne called me and said how nice it was, after I got back from Yellowstone, to go home to Big Rapids for the weekend and have me there.
  
• Spending just an evening with Jesse and Jennifer and Heath and Heather laughing hysterically until tears were running down our faces at the Grape Stomp video (seriously one of the funniest, most awful things I have ever seen...if you haven't seen it, check it out here) made me realize how much I miss spending time with them.
  

There are other reasons too, like the fact that this job is huge for a fresh-out-of-school recreational professional and that I will live at a park, with a lake, where I can kayak every morning and be outside every day. And I can run with my girls while we train for our marathon.

Callie Wallie registered over the weekend.

I think there are 7 people signed up now and at least 4 more who are seriously considering joining us for the marathon.

So many things are falling perfectly into place to prove that moving home is the right decision. I just wish I hadn't had to come all the way to Arizona to figure out that I should be in Michigan. But what can you do? The west will have to wait a few years for me.