The Risk of Moving Home

I recently made the decision to return to my hometown of Traverse City, Michigan instead of staying in Chicago, Illinois where I spent two months over the summer studying for the Illinois bar exam. This was not an easy decision because of many factors, not the least of which is a fear that I might fail in front of those closest and most dear to me. David Byrne summarized this idea nicely in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Here is an excerpt:

The generous attitude towards failure that big cities afford is invaluable—it’s how things get created. In a small town everyone knows about your failures, so you are more careful about what you might attempt. (Link)

David is right that big cities insulate your failure and small towns do not, but I think he is driving at two different issues. It is okay to fail in any setting, big or small. What matters most is how you deal with it. If you can’t take the ridicule and gossip of a small town, then stay in NYC or Chicago. However, if you don’t mind hearing about why your community members think you failed (or succeeded) and you are able to process that information in a productive way, then a small town is much more rewarding because you are almost guaranteed of feedback, whether good or bad. In a big city, you run the risk of being drowned out.

I think back to when I first started at the University of Michigan and I said to my parents that I couldn’t imagine moving back to Traverse City because I thought there wasn’t much going on in Traverse City! (I laugh now at my insensitivity and ignorance, hoping that in the future I avoid making such sweeping statements. But, I was new to college and everything in Ann Arbor truly was new, for better or worse.)

I find now that there is more accessible activity in Traverse City than I’ve found anywhere else I have lived in the past ten years. I’m not sure what the city is putting in the water, but with much of the development around town (State Theater, State Hospital, Warehouse District, the Pit downtown, the Jolly Pumpkin, Shorts, other new microbreweries, the Young Professionals group, etc.), the founding of the Traverse City Film Festival, the wineries, and old and new friends all seems to have breathed a new life in my quite hometown. None of this would have happened if other people had not taken risks.

In examining more closely what the big city of Chicago had to offer and what the small town of Traverse City had to offer, the risk was not in the possible exposure of failure but in failing to expose what matters most in my life – happiness, family, friends, and the many great experiences Northern Michigan has to offer.

When I stand on the shore of Lake Michigan waiting for my dog to swim back to me or when I’m hiking through the woods of one of the many trails I have recently discovered and re-discovered or even when I’m walking down Front Street on a rainy day, it is crystal clear how much more rewarding the small town of Traverse City is than any big city.

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Chris

Attorney & Amateur Golfer

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