Why Kentucky

I may have grown up in Colorado, but the Midwest has always felt like home.

My mom is from Illinois and my dad is from Michigan, so most of our family vacations were built around going back to those places and visiting family. Later, I attended college in Michigan and spent a summer interning in Indiana. Over time I built friendships across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin. I may have never officially claimed residence in the Midwest until now, but it has been the region that felt most familiar to me for a long time.

Familiarity can dull your sense of wonder

My dad and I have talked about this a lot over the years. When you grow up near something, it can become so normal that you stop appreciating it in the same way outsiders do.

He grew up a block from the beach on Lake Michigan. For him, that landscape carries more familiarity than awe. I think the same has always been true for me with the mountains in Colorado. I lived in their shadow for most of my life, and because of that I rarely felt their majesty in the way visitors did. Friends and family would come to town and immediately comment on their beauty while I mostly overlooked them.

That difference has always interested me. Sometimes home is not the place that looks the most dramatic. Sometimes it is the place that just feels right in your body.

What pulled me toward the Midwest

When I visited my dad's family in Michigan, most of the trip revolved around the beach, the lake, and time on the boat. That created a strong connection in me to big bodies of water, even though I do not really fish, never properly learned to swim, and definitely do not tan. Still, a lot of my daydreaming ends up in the same place: the beach, boats, summer sun, and a long day outside with friends.

Trips to see my mom's side of the family in Illinois pulled on a different thread. We would visit the extended family farm, and I would wander the fields, explore broken-down barns, climb on tractors, and hold piglets. Then I would go play with the dogs at the hunting lodge and ride around in the side-by-side looking over corn fields and duck blinds. That connection to farming and working land has stayed with me ever since.

Between the water in Michigan and the farm country in Illinois, the Midwest became tied to some of the strongest feelings of joy, freedom, and belonging that I can remember.

Utah helped clarify what I wanted

When friends started leaving Colorado and my parents decided to move to Utah, I felt like it was time for a change too. I followed them there to see if a new setting in the West might kick off the next chapter of my life.

I gave it a real shot. I tried to get into mountain biking and fly fishing. I completed my first triathlon. I went through two ski seasons that were not especially great. On paper, it seemed like the kind of place that should have clicked for me.

It just didn't.

Even while I was there, I kept thinking about the Midwest. I kept thinking about the beach, the farms, the towns, and my friends there. Eventually I took my Sprinter van on a road trip from Utah through Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to visit family and friends and spend more time seeing the region with fresh eyes.

I love my dad's hometown, but it did not quite fit the stage of life I am in right now, so I kept looking.

Why Kentucky made sense

After a fair amount of searching and deliberation, I landed on Kentucky, specifically the area just outside Cincinnati on the Kentucky side of the river.

I visited a friend over New Year's Eve and started the first round of house hunting. Nothing quite came together before I had to head back to Utah. Then, the very next day, a house came on the market that seemed to fit the bill. My realtor and friend toured it for me, gave me their honest opinion, and told me it needed some work but was far from a disaster.

So I put in an offer.

It was accepted, and five weeks later I had moved across the country.

The first few weeks have already been an adventure, but that part deserves its own post.

The reaction has been interesting

One of the things I have found most interesting is how people respond when I tell them I moved to Kentucky.

When someone moves to Colorado, Utah, or Florida, people tend to immediately understand the logic. The move explains itself. But when you say you are moving to Kentucky, people often look confused and ask, "Are you moving for work?" as if that is the only reason someone would choose to go there.

That reaction has always struck me as odd.

There are plenty of people in the Midwest who would never leave because they love it deeply. Yet when someone from outside the region chooses to move there, people act as if it needs an unusual explanation.

From my perspective, it really does not.

There is a kind of life here that I missed

There is a magic to this part of the country that is hard to explain if you have never lived outside it and then come back.

There is history everywhere. There is industry. There is farming. There is pioneering heritage. There is bourbon. And one thing you do not find nearly as much of in the West is the sheer amount of green. There is life everywhere.

Yes, there is more humidity. Yes, there are more bugs. But those things come with abundance. The air is heavier here, and I love that feeling.

What I am looking forward to

I cannot wait to reach my one-year mark here and compare what feels different about living in the Midwest versus visiting it.

For now, I am mostly enjoying one simple fact: for the first time, I am not just passing through the Midwest.

I live here now.