My wife and I just moved from Iowa to Pennsylvania. \u00a0I was born in far northern New York, but we moved to Iowa when I was only a few months old. \u00a0Although I’ve spent time in Europe and West Africa, I have never lived anywhere but Iowa for more than five months. \u00a0I’m finding that what I miss the most is, obviously, seeing my close friends nearly every day, being able to visit my parents any time, and running in to people on campus who I know whenever I walk around.<\/p>\n
I know that many of these things will change with time – I will know more people here, I’ll make new friendships, but my parents will still be far away. \u00a0For me, that is really difficult.<\/p>\n
I grew up in a small university city, and knew every road, location, pattern, sound, smell, image, time and context in intimate detail. \u00a0I had walked or biked nearly everywhere in Iowa City, and that was comfortable. \u00a0The sense of place and my sense of myself were deeply integrated. \u00a0One of the most valuable things for me about going to school at Iowa was that in my spare time, I would get in my car and explore Johnson, Cedar, Washington, Henry, Lee, Linn and Iowa counties in extreme detail. \u00a0I could drive out of town in any direction, for 200 miles, take any turn, and come back in to town from any direction I chose. \u00a0I would often depart town in the morning on a Sunday and come back late at night, my pump primed to write new poetry for class the next day. \u00a0Now I’m in a new small university city, but all those deep interconnections are missing. \u00a0It will take a long time (possibly the rest of my life) to rebuild them here.<\/p>\n
I like this place, I like the few people I already know here. \u00a0I like the mountains, but I miss the gently rolling plains and the comfort of the way all the streets and roads are perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions. \u00a0I miss knowing interesting historical details about the place I live, like why “Blackhawk Mini Park<\/a>” is called that<\/a>. \u00a0I miss having a beer at Bo James or The Mill with friends. I miss driving past the airport where I learned to fly and remembering cleaning airplanes there with good friends who left town in the other direction a few years back.<\/p>\n I miss knowing that if someone had the last name Yoder or Swartzendruber or Stutsman, they were\u00a0from the area<\/em>.<\/p>\n