Grateful to be "home" again

Considering that I can’t shuffle a deck of cards to save my life, and that my idea of an exciting Friday night is settling down with the family to watch reruns of The Andy Griffith Show, visiting Las Vegas — let alone living there — was never on my bucket list.

But, against these odds, Vegas has been home for the past eight years.

It all began back in 2014, when I went to Vegas for a nine-month internship. Following the completion of the program, I accepted a position with the organization with which I interned and decided to stay in Las Vegas.

Like most tourist destinations, the tourist version of Las Vegas is not very alluring to locals, including to my family and me. Sure, we enjoy taking out-of-town guests to see the Bellagio Fountains, to have their pictures taken in front of the iconic Las Vegas sign, and to tour the Mob Museum. But the Strip is not the Las Vegas in which we live.

Our Vegas is mom-and-pop coffee shops, hole-in-the-wall eateries, and backyard get-togethers with friends. It’s our church, drives through the desert, local parks and visits to Boulder City. And we have enjoyed “our Vegas” these past several years.

But warm weather and palm trees can’t compensate for the desire to be closer to our families, to our roots.

A few months into our marriage, in fact, my wife and I began talking about the possibility of moving back to Michigan, where we are both from. Five years and two children later, we finally decided the time had come: we move into our new home, in Metamora, this week.

I have a running list of things I have missed about Michigan and which I look forward to enjoying once again...

• Family get-togethers.
• Holidays.
• Day trips.
• Outings with friends.
• Grass.
• The Henry Ford Museum.
• Autumn colors.
• Dow Gardens.
• Koegel’s hotdogs.
• Fourth of July.
• Afternoons at the lake.
• A stellar state library system.
• Summer days below 110 degrees.

Although we will undoubtedly need to be reminded of these perks when the snow begins to fall and when we cannot feel our faces, for us, Michigan will always be home, and we’re grateful to be back.