Anyway, here's my first attempt at putting my love for this city into words...thanks to Sarah for the inspiration to finally take it out of just ideas and put it into words.
“I’m A Clevelander”
Cleveland isn’t something you do. Its not some place you come and go from. It’s not some destination.
You are Cleveland.
There’s a distinct difference. I’ve seen it time and again. You can ask anyone where they’re from and 99 times out of 100, you’ll get something like “I’m from outside Los Angeles”, “born in X, raised in Y”, or just the simple “Chicago”.
Either you are Cleveland or you’re not. It doesn’t infect everyone. But those people it does infect….and there are quite a few, it’s easy to see. Ask them where they’re from and you’ll get…
“I’m a Clevelander.”
There’s no two ways about it. Either you love it here or you were never really meant to be from here. You breathe life into Cleveland. You’re what make it vibrant, quirky, and enjoyable to those who can find the intrinsic value of people.
It’s a lifestyle, being a Clevelander. Its how you act, where you go, how you think, etc.
Its watching shows specifically because Michael Symon is going to be on it, or because they might mention Cleveland, or because some product of the surrounding area (Patricia Heaton, Halle Berry, Trent Reznor, the Black Keys, MGK, Gray Maynard) are going to be featured. Its not you on the screen or coming over the radio, but because it’s a Clevelander, because its someone you imagine feels the same way you do and knows the city, you feel that immense pride as if it had been you in their place all along.
Cleveland isn’t about pretty, though it has a lot of beautiful people and even more beautiful places. Cleveland isn’t about gritty, though there still are remnants of the steel mills and a lot of dirty jobs in the area. Cleveland isn’t about money, even though day after day people are spending more to revitalize areas. Cleveland isn’t about being misfortunate, even though the river has caught fire and there is a lot of poverty in the area.
In the end, Cleveland is a city. It’s a physical place on a map and can be Google searched and mapped.
However, the truth to Cleveland is in the feeling and emotions.
Cleveland is about us. The feelings evoked when you think about the city. The fierce devotion to something outsiders just wouldn’t understand. The collective need to try to make those people see exactly what Cleveland means.
I spent six total years away from Cleveland, living and working in different states, traveling all about the US on business trips. Sometimes those trips took me out to the “dream” locations like Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, etc. Those places always glamorized in movies or talked about as the “must see” destinations due to whatever thing they’ve got going for them at the time.
Whenever I would land or drive past the ‘Welcome To” signs, the Clevelander in me immediately came out. It’s a fierce competitive nature and defensiveness that quickly arises almost as a fight or flight defense mechanism, probably created by years of suffering Cleveland jokes or sports teams that love to give people reason to hope before slapping them in the face and taking it away. I was determined to try and see what these places had over Cleveland. Why do people rant and rave about a city like Chicago but love to talk about how awful they think Cleveland is? I was determined to prove them wrong, determined to prove that my indiscriminate love and admiration for my city wasn’t some misguided attempt to make excuses for a dying metropolis, much akin to those poor souls who make excuses for their disappointing significant others with things like “He’s a good guy when you get to know him” or “You see a different side of her than I do”.
When I moved back home, a lot of friends and co-workers would always put me on the spot. When I would tell them of my travels and places I had the opportunity to live in, a lot of the time I would get a classic exasperated “Why would you move back HERE? Its CLEVELAND!” It would take all my energy to not give them the blankest, dumbest face I could muster.
They didn’t understand it like we do.
Others, when talking about it, would just nod their heads and give the knowing look. They immediately understood. Why wouldn’t you move back to Cleveland? It’s CLEVELAND.
I’m not as pretty as Sarah, nor am I even as close to as fashionable as she is (on many occasions I’ve sent her extremely desperate texts and IMs for fashion advice which ends up always being right), but we share the love of this awesome city. I’m the type of guy who doesn’t quite understand how to pronounce “Haute” and can’t figure out if cargo shorts are passable in public (apparently a lot of the time they’re not). I’m here to offer a bit different viewpoint of Cleveland, the other side of haute.
Sarah talked to me about this new venture of hers and I immediately jumped into the idea (she didn’t have a choice in the matter, really). I love this city and the feeling I get when I think about it. I hope to impart why that matters so much to me as time goes on.
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