When I first decided to move to Kansas City from DC …. let’s just say it wasn’t the place I thought I would ever live.  A job brought me here and I was certain I would stay one to two years max.  I didn’t even know that Kansas City was on the state line of Missouri and Kansas until I saw a map. Jump ahead 24 years and here I am almost a lifer.

Let’s be honest.  When I arrived 24 years ago, Kansas City was nothing like it is today.  There was little night life, the arts community was here but it was in a giant museum on a hill, shopping was big box (think Target vs. Restoration).  The Royals were painful to watch and the Chiefs seemed to be the only thing that rallied the entire city.  I remember a brunch bunch of people who had relocated to KC – there were so few of us we needed to stick together for support.

Today, it is an energetic city with opportunities galore!  There is no way you can cover everything KC has to offer – there are always new restaurants or local artists you haven’t heard of yet – there is always a concert, a play or an event you missed  hearing about somehow.  I love that KC can have tens of thousands of people cheering on a local team and on Friday nights the local news is covering all the high school football games.  I love that new business and new areas of town continue to develop and people still support all our local charities.  It’s a cross between Mayberry and Seattle with a little bit of Nashville tossed in for good measure.

People are proud to live here and are fiercely loyal to the city.  KC is alive and well.

I love that my 5 teenage kids call KC their hometown.  They were KC t-shirts 5 out of 7 days, they don’t miss a Royals game, most are Chiefs fans (one still loves the Broncos with her Momma!) and none of them talk about wanting to leave.  I remember wanting to get out of my hometown one second after graduating from high school with the hopes of never returning.  Not so much when you are from KC – you are proud to live here.  It’s a large city with a small community feeling.

In the past, I would travel out-of-town for work and people would see my Kansas drivers license.  Some would just look at it like it was a foreign object – some would say “wow, we don’t see these very often” and others would have some dumb joke to make related to the Wizard of Oz.  Today, people talk about how cool it was to visit KC, how they are wanting to visit KC or how they were cheering for the Royals in the Series last year.  People seem envious that they don’t live here – like it somehow represents everything good in our country.

It was a fly over town when I first moved here 24 years ago, but today …. it is truly a city my tribe calls home.  We are proud to say “We are from Kansas City!”.

#KChometown  #kcproud  #keepflyingover