I Choose Indy!

I have to say I ended up here rather by accident. See, I grew up in a military family. Although my folks were from small-town and rural northeastern Illinois, I lived all over the country. Utah, Nebraska, Kentucky, Maryland…but mostly the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. I really consider myself to be “from” Virginia, since that’s where I spent the majority of my formative years and where I went to college. I never had any longing to live in the Midwest at all. I grew up an east-coaster - worse! a D.C. Suburblican. I always figured I’d be an east-coaster forever.

Indeed, when I graduated college, I took a job with a multinational company at the HQ location in New Jersey. New Jersey was a lot different from the D.C. suburbs that were my comfort zone. The pace of life was fast, the cost of living higher, the people harder to get to know, and everything seemed just a bit older and more worn. It didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t fit in New Jersey. My wife was graduating from college a couple of years after me, and she didn’t care to spend our lives together in New Jersey either. But we had a lot of friends who headed for the southeast - Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte. So we established a goal: to get out of New Jersey, and to move to the southeast.

Well, the first part of the goal was accomplished. We got out of New Jersey when I was able to get a transfer to a small office within my company that was located in Decatur, Illinois. Decatur was good for us, in that it gave us a chance to get on our feet financially, get out of the go-go pace of life on the coast, and figure out what our next steps were. But beyond Decatur’s ability to meet the first half of our goal, it really didn’t have much else to offer. We didn’t find any other young couples who were college-educated. It was hard to make friends when we didn’t have much in common with the people in that blue-collar, union town. And there really wasn’t much to do there. So our plans continued to evolve, and the next step was to find jobs in the southeast.

But that’s where Indy came into the picture. The company decided to move the whole Decatur operation to Indy seven years ago. We welcomed the chance to get out of Decatur, but we were still planning, or dreaming, to move. Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, even Richmond or back to D.C. - all were in our thoughts. But we moved to Indy and were able to afford a pretty nice house. That’s where this town’s charms began to show up.

The week we moved to Indy, it was like a competition to see who in the neighborhood could bring over the best plate of cookies. No fewer than six different new neighbors came over to introduce themselves with the requisite plate of home-baked treats. In the weeks and months after we moved in, we experienced real Hoosier Hospitality. Where in D.C. and New Jersey, you MIGHT have gotten the smile-wave from the neighbors, here we got the stop-and-chat. We knew everyone’s names, and their kids’ names, and their dogs’ names, and we looked after each other. You could always borrow a tool, or get someone to go over and let the dog out if you were running late. The kids in the neighborhood all played together, and you could rest assured that the neighbors would keep an eye on them the same as you would. Two families that were out neighbors there are still our best friends in the world. We’re still in Indy, but now have moved across town. But we’re experiencing the same neighborliness again as we had in our first neighborhood.

Indy’s charms go beyond just neighbors, though. The people here are just so easygoing and open. It’s easy to make friends, and we have dozens in Indy. The pace of life is more relaxed - people aren’t in such a stressed-out hurry here as they are back on the east coast. Add to all that the great cost-of-living (my family in D.C. and California are envious!), the cultural attractions (zoo, theatres, music and arts), the restaurants (something for everyone), the sports (that would take another whole post!), and everyhing else this town has to offer. It’s like this place is a well-kept secret where everything that people say they want in a location is actually here, without much of the negatives.

So Indy just kind of happened for me. But now that I’m here, I have no desire to leave. I no longer think that the grass is greener in Atlanta, or Charlotte, or Raleigh. I can always go visit those cities. Home is here for me now.