I moved to Lansing, Mich. in 1992. I was in junior high, so it doesn't really feel like I grew up here. I didn't take field trips to Potter Park Zoo in Lansing. I took field trips to Brookfield Zoo in Illinois. I didn't go to Impression 5. I went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I'd been to the Capitol building in Springfield, Ill., but not the one in Lansing.
I was saying to some friends that I wanted to see the Capitol, so three of us decided to partake in Lansing’s annual Be A Tourist in Your Own Town event.
And oh, did we tourist it up! We took ridiculous pictures of ourselves lying on the floor of the Capitol rotunda. We played on playgrounds and went to museums – photo-documenting the whole experience. If we came across one of those cutouts you stick your face in, we stopped, we stuck and we photographed.
When our albums hit Facebook, naturally everyone was jealous of our amazing vacation to Lansing. So the next year, our group grew from three to about a dozen. We had gelato at the City Market, we got kazoos from Elderly Music and established a kazoo band called BuzZzZzZzZ Off, we had beers at the Nuthouse, we played like kids at Impression 5. We wanted to do more but ran out of time. Most importantly, we had a blast.
It’s amazing what you don’t see if you’re not looking for it. I’ve lived here for almost 20 years, but I’d never visited the Capitol orMichigan Historical Museum. I fall into the same Midwestern rut many folks fall into. One of dinner at a chain restaurant and movie at a Cineplex. But when you look around, you realize there’s so much to enjoy and so much hiding.
Last summer, a friend organized a photo scavenger hunt. Eight teams competed to recreate 42 photos around the greater Lansing area in seven hours. My team of four scrambled around the city photographing places of worship, murals, parking ramps, sculptures, schools and rubble. We laughed, we ran and we discovered things we never knew we knew. We stopped long enough to photograph a sculpture one of us drives by everyday, but has never really looked at. We realized there are paintings and carvings on buildings we see everyday but never take the time to notice. We walked through parks and really saw — maybe for the first time — the hidden beauty of the city that surrounds us.
In looking back to write this blog post, I realized the real hidden gem of discovering greater Lansing isn’t art or architecture. It isn’t the museums or the Capitol or parks. It’s the people. Because in every one of the pictures it doesn’t really matter where we are standing, or what we are standing on. It doesn’t matter if we are holding a kazoo, a drink, hands or a coffee. What matters is that we have found one another… a niche of people who want to be here, who have come to appreciate this Midwestern rustbelt city and who have taken an active role in its revival. This isn’t just a city we’re vacationing in, and we’re not just tourists. What makes our time together so fun and ridiculous and silly is that this is our city. We have chosen to call it home and make it our own. We can be proud of its assets together. We can enjoy it, defend it and embrace it.
At the end of the day, place for me is about people. And here in Lansing, I’ve found my people.
Kate Tykocki