Fall 2003 - Northwestern College

C l a s s i t ch o u g h t sN o r t h w e s t e r n C l a s s i cFinding Homeby Sherrie Barber Wi l l s o n’98You know, if you hadasked me even five years agow h e re I wanted my home tobe, Grand Rapids, Mich.,w o u l d n ’t have been the lastplace I’d have said, but itwould have been close.I’m not sure I’d evenh e a rd of Grand Rapids until Iwent to Nort h w e s t e rn andfound that, with few exceptions,to live in Orange Citywas to be Dutch, and to beDutch was to have some re l a-tionship to Grand Rapids. Ih e a rd some people call it theMotherland and thought theyw e re joking, till I re a l i z e de v e ryone with a Dyk, an Uit,a Ver or a Van in their lastname had a friend or re l a t i v e(often both) in this city ofless than half a million peopl e .Coming from a family ofmixed descent (none of itDutch) and Baptist faith, Igave very little thought toGrand Rapids even after I’dh e a rd of it. I was an Iowan,f rom the time I was sixmonths old and my pare n t s(both second- or third - g e n e r-ation Iowans) adopted meand brought me home. I re a l-ized Iowa had its faults; someof its signature qualities—theones so common peoplehave named them, such asthe heat and humidity (or“ c o rn - g rowing weather”) andthe barn y a rd smell (or “smellof money”)—were definitelyp roblems for me.But I certainly had nointention of leaving the state,any more than I was ready tolet some Michigander tell methat Michigan was SO muchb e t t e r. If you’ve spent anytime at all with someonef rom Michigan, you pro b a b l yknow the drill: “In Michigan,you can ski AND swim! It’sb o rd e red by FOUR of thefive Great Lakes!” As far as Icould tell, all Michigandersseemed to have an insuff e r-able amount of pride in theirstate. I mean, I loved Iowa,but I didn’t go around tellingall the people fro mMinnesota how awful theirstate was, even though it hadmosquitoes the size ofVo l k s w a g e n s .But, as I have since disco v e red, God must get a lotof laughs from our intentions.I spent 15 months aftercollege working at a job thatnearly finished off my senseof humor and my sense ofs e l f - w o rth. Like an answer top r a y e r, I got an e-mail from acollege friend living in GrandRapids. Her company, TheWo rdsmiths, was looking fora writer/editor. Did I know ofanyone who’d be intere s t e d ?I didn’t—then I re a l i z e dI did. I’m highly risk-averse,so I force myself every sooften to do something bigand scary, to shake myselfout of the deep, comfy ruts Ilove to dig. This, I thought,was just such an opport u n i t y.I’d move to Grand Rapids,see what it’s like to live in anew state, then, when I wasdone with my little adventu re, I’d move back home toI o w a .I never thought GrandRapids would ever becomehome. After all, home isw h e re the heart is, and myh e a rt was safely back inIowa, with all of my familyand all of my friends. I didn’tknow a soul in GrandRapids, aside from my friend,and I knew next to nothingabout it, except that it hadCalvin College and a wholelot of Dutch people.It was the winters thatfirst won me over. Yes, therewas snow—a whole lot ofwet, heavy, “lake eff e c t ”snow—but my car doorsd i d n ’t freeze shut, my nostrilsd i d n ’t stick together when Ib reathed, and I didn’t have toget up 20 minutes early tochip inch-thick sheets of icef rom my windshield. I thre waway my metal-tipped icescraper—the first sign that Iwas thinking of not comingh o m e .B e f o re I knew it, therewas a job I loved, goodfriends, a church, favoriterestaurants, a hairstylist, doctorand dentist, favorites h o rtcuts—the kinds ofthings they call putting downroots. And I realized I wass t a rting to feel more at homein Grand Rapids than in myold hometown in Iowa.D o n ’t get me wro n g ;t h e re are still a lot of things Ifind strange about thisplace—mostly when I’mdriving. Michigan left turn sremain pure insanity to me(Why on earth should youhave to make a U-turn just tomake a simple left turn ? ) ,and Grand Rapids driversseem to operate under thelogic that they have foughtlong and hard for their spoton the road, and they’re notabout to yield it to anyone,especially you. And don’teven get me started onMichigan beef vs. Iowabeef—or the Spartans orWolverines vs. the Hawkeyes.But somehow, this hasbecome home. Don’t ask mehow or why, out of all thetowns and cities in all theworld, this Iowa girl decidedto settle here. But I know thisis where I’m supposed to be.(Though I still won’t take anyIowa cracks fro mMichiganders.)S h e rrie Barber Willson iswriter/editor with TheWo rdsmiths Inc., happily pro v-ing that you can do somethingwith an English major besidesteach. She also married anative Michigander last year,and, while she’s gotten him tostop making Iowa cracks, shehas yet to convince him to ro o tfor Iowa instead of Michigan.3 0 ▲ F a l l 2 0 0 3