I’m in Iowa now. Beautiful, lovely, Iowa, of enormous skies and towering silos, and wide, flat streets. I came for my college reunion: fifteen years. Somewhere in those fifteen years, I became a grownup, mostly. Somewhere in those years, the fantastic place that is Grinnell, both the school and the town, ceased to be completely real to me.
Then I came back, my family in tow. And my heart hurt a little with love for this place (it’s here! it’s real!), for the people I knew while I was here, for the quiet streets and sensible homes and for the cornfields, just blocks away in all directions, rolling steadily into the distance. So many things I loved, still love. The silver water tower that looms over the town. The tallgrass prairie preserve where I used to run. The sound of the train that crawls right through the middle of campus.
This is a lovely, cozy place. It is at least 300 miles from anywhere that anyone might visit for a conference, or wedding, or romantic getaway. You only come to Grinnell if you really, really mean to. I hope it’s not another 15 years before I’m back.
If I could do it all over again, the whole Grinnell thing, I would. In a heartbeat. But I’d do it better this time. I’d work harder, I’d talk to more people, I would wring more out of every single moment. I would worry less about how others saw me, talk to more people, especially those who didn’t seem like “my” kind of people. I’d date more, and give away less of my time to “serious” romances. I might still do the occasional hallucinogen (ever been convinced you were walking on the moon? see: you just can’t get that experience any other way), but I also wouldn’t shy away from those really grueling classes.
And I’d also learn more about the world around me — literally, the world that surrounded me while I was here.
You all know that I now spend lots of time thinking about food, and agriculture. And corn. But I didn’t then. The cornfields around the campus seemed like mere charming backdrop then. I was from suburban New York, and I dismissed those fields as quaint. I had no idea how what role they had in shaping rest of the nation — what we eat, what kind of economy we had, locally, nationally, and globally.
I almost never talked to a farmer while I was here. So many people I never talked to when I was here.
So that’s one thing I would do differently. Just one thing, but an important one. I would give more respect to this town, and this landscape, and the people who occupy it. I would treat them not simply as backdrop to my “experience.” I would actually try to learn something about them.
This time, I tried to do a little of that while I was here. I would need a lifetime, though, another one, to really do it right.
I would spend a lifetime in Grinnell, Iowa. I really would.
Look. Here’s the prairie where I once ran, storm coming in:
Here’s my darling baby girl crawling there (you can’t tell in the photo, but it’s pouring on her):
And here’s my older girl on the fields where I once romped…a future Grinnellian, maybe? She does look good, doesn’t she?
(ahh, Grinnell. You hurt my heart. Love can do that).
I have a very good friend that lives outside of Ottumwa, near Oscaloosa, and we went to visit her a few years back. We had to drive right by Grinnell, and I remember thinking about what an idylic place it seemed to be, in the middle of nowhere. My friend, who is married to a real cowboy laughed her ass off when I mentioned Grinnell as a great college. They couldn’t BELIEVE that anyone had ever heard of it outside of Iowa. I tried to convince them of it’s sterling reputation, but they didn’t buy it.
Then just a week or so ago, at my son’s IEP meeting, Grinnell came up as a possible college for him to consider, so I wrote to my friend and told her that, and she was gobsmacked. She just doesn’t get what a fine reputation Grinnell has for a certain kind of kid. I’d be thrilled if my son got in there.
I moved to Grinnell about 3 and a half years ago, and have found it to really be a wonderful place. My husband’s family came here almost 15 years ago, and they are starting to become a real ingrained part of the community. It’s odd for me (having been raised on both coasts) how some random strangers could know a lot about you, and it isn’t really creepy. We don’t have to lock our doors, carry keys or ID, or worry about crime. It really is idyllic, and the landscape is beautiful.
Good Monday morning, Ali ! What a wonderful time you had, and what a lovely place Grinnell sounds like ! There is so much that you appreciate when you are older, and you captured it beautifully. That’s the sort of American dream I hunger for — the peace and the beauty and the simple goodness of life away from a big city. The pictures were so pretty - morally seductive in their charming green vastness !
I’m glad you got to go back, and maybe your daughter will indeed go to college there, and part of the cycle will continue in that lovely place…
Ah youth! So much to be learned about our lives and ourselves in retrospect. I hope to teach my children to appreciate the world and people around them - to live more in the moment and not let everything just pass by.
This was such a beautiful post…and not just because I went to Grinnell (and not because I spent the weekend there as well).
It was great to see you this weekend and to see your kids in person.
Iowa’s nice. I went there a few years ago for a health food conference. It was just beautiful and so peaceful — we camped out, and it was just the most amazingly relaxing weekend. I’ve wanted to go back ever since — your post reminded me of that.
In response to Misty’s comment - “It’s odd for me (having been raised on both coasts) how some random strangers could know a lot about you, and it isn’t really creepy. We don’t have to lock our doors, carry keys or ID, or worry about crime. It really is idyllic, and the landscape is beautiful.”
Actually, that sounds a heck of A LOT like where we live in rural New England. However, despite being born and bread in rural MN and after living on both coasts, it STILL creeps me out a bit that strangers know a lot about me! I think I just put it in the back of my mind and forget about it. Otherwise, it would drive me crazy.
Happy to say that my nephew is a proud Grinnellian and just finished his junior year.
Tears, Dear.
Another ‘only in Iowa’ moment…last night I was given inadequate directions somewhere, so I stopped at a gas station and asked for directions based on the name of the person I was trying to get to. And it worked!
Wonderful post. Sums up my feelings as well. It was great to see you and talk to you (even briefly) and see your beautiful children. Can’t wait for our next reunion…
Jenniwd, tears and a lump in my throat too … especially as I see Merrie walking across the campus lawn with a Grinnell sweatshirt on. What memories Grinnell holds for the parents who sent their kids off to those cornfields.
Friendships were made by more than the kids’ generation. This was a beautiful post, Ali. Your memories resurrected memories of my own.