Do you love where you live? Many times in my life I have loved where I live. You can too!
Although some places are tougher than others to love. Try a small town in NW Iowa. My parents forced my to live there growing up. How do you possibly love living in LeMars, Iowa? Bitter cold winters, hot summers. No cities of any significance nearby. Where hell goes to freeze over. Universally, if you graduate high school in a small town, you want OUT! But some people return to their little town. It has redeeming qualities they never recognized until moving away. I never went back. Can’t see any reason anyone would return… unless forced by family circumstances.
Not that Iowa was all bad. I had two lengthy stints in SE Iowa. Loved going to college in Iowa. Enjoyed bringing my family back decades later to experience great schools and a safe small town atmosphere. One of my daughters and her husband just bought a house in that same small town.
Kansas and Missouri were easier to love. So were are stints in Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina and Oregon. Especially South Carolina and Oregon. All these places… we found ways to love where we lived.
How?
Get involved
Know your neighbors. Your kids’ teachers. Coaches. Play sports. Join a gym. Volunteer. Good people exist everywhere.
Eat local
Know your restaurants, find the ones you enjoy. Buy produce locally. Go to the farmer’s markets. Ask questions. Find the vendors who are really local farmers. Pick your own when possible.
Explore nearby nature
Every place has their nearby lakes, rivers, caves, mountains, canyons, forests… even just big rocks in the desert. Something!
Do the road trips
Everywhere we moved, there were plentiful touristy things to do. Even in Iowa there were opportunities like Field of Dreams, places to dig geodes, small museums, quirky little towns… and St Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Milwaukee not all that far away.
We thoroughly explored the nearby states. Living in Beaverton, Oregon became an outpost for the exploration of the ocean beaches, Crater Lake, Mount Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, huge sand dunes, caves, all the offerings of Washington, California and western Canada. The possibilities were nearly endless. Every state we lived in, were launching points for nearby states and Canadian provinces.
If this fails….
Move! Life is too short. There are so many fantastic places. We chose Grand Haven, Michigan. As I have said many times… it is our paradise. Two years in, there is so much to love. This is a place where people graduate from high school, move away… and then come back.
