Tomorrow is my last day in Cincinnati. It's been an interesting journey, for sure, graduating from college in rural Bowling Green, Kentucky, then heading north to the decidedly urban (at least for the Midwest) Queen City.
I spent a part of my childhood in Northern Kentucky, with Cincinnati's impressive, expansive skyline nestled just beyond the Cut in the Hill--a steep incline descending towards the Ohio River that provides what is quite possibly the most breathtaking cityscape I've ever seen. And this is coming from someone who's been to New York, and has stood awestruck at Tokyo's vast expanse beyond the horizon. I think what is particularly beautiful about the Cincinnati skyline is in the reveal; you're driving through pleasant but somewhat vague suburbs and then you round a corner and start your descent and then BOOM! There it is, spread out before you in a constantly changing but ever-recognizable skyline, nestled between the rolling hills of the Ohio River Valley.
I don't know if I would technically claim Cincinnati as my "hometown," seeing as how I've still spent the longest part of my life in Louisville, but it is a city that I have been glad to call home for the last several years, almost in spite of myself and itself. Cincinnati is a strange and at times wonderful place; full of seemingly out-of-place culture, insanely delicious and creative food offerings, and dotted with architecture both classic and gorgeously contemporary. I would be utterly remiss if I didn't acknowledge the fact that working at an architecture firm for the last year and a half has greatly shaped my view of the city, and of every city, and given me a newfound appreciation for the little architectural wonders that seem to be scattered everywhere.
While Cincinnati is indeed a highly traditional and annoyingly, stubbornly conservative town, the built landscape reflects the diversity and potential that this city still holds. From Daniel Liebeskind's beautiful and controversial Ascent Condominiums across the river in Covington to the joyous, awe-inspiring concentric arcs in the Cincinnati Museum Center nee Union Terminal, from the iconic PNC Bank skyscraper to the starkly strange and beautiful Contemporary Arts Center, Zaha Hadid's first commission in the United States (and one of the crown jewels in my former employer's portfolio of signature Cincinnati structures), Cincinnati has become a wonderfully quirky, under-the-radar mashup of the old and the new, ripe with potential for continued growth and new development, if the residents can only get beyond themselves and their rampant fear of the change in population and demographics that is fast approaching every urban center, whether they like it or not.
One thing that I have always appreciated about Cincinnati is that unlike Louisville, a city that claims to be one of the most progressive in the south, Cincinnati is not wholly segregated. Yes, there are neighborhoods across the city that are dominated by certain racial and cultural profiles, but the non-whites are not all lumped onto one side of town, as they are in Louisville. In Pleasant Ridge, the neighborhood where I've lived for two years, the cross-section of diversity is incredible, and it's a feature of the area that I have always been proud of. Yes, there are plenty of homogenized and gentrified neighborhoods in Cincinnati, as there will be wherever urban centers are forced into attempted "revitalization," which involves forcing out those of a certain economic class to make way for those of a different one, but there are still plenty of little secret pockets scattered throughout the city where the long-lost dream of true racial and cultural harmony can be seen as on its way to coming true. And this is in a city that had horrifying race riots less than a decade ago, and continued systematic racism today. There is hope for Cincinnati, but there must be action to accompany that hope.
So, the question is, if I love it so much, then why I am leaving? The answer is very simple: because I love a person more than I love the city, more than I love a job. We're moving together to Indianapolis, a city that's new for the both of us, and ripe with opportunities to enrich our lives both as individuals and as a couple. In more than 3.5 years of being together, we have never lived less than 100 miles away from each other. That kind of distance takes it toll--emotionally, psychologically, physically, and financially--and when the opportunity finally presented itself for us to see each other on a daily basis at last, we took it. Yes, there is a lot of stress involved with interstate moving and the merging of assets, and yes, I am leaving a job I love for a new one I can only hope to love as much, but he made the same sacrifice for me. This is the work/personal life conundrum that I've heard so much about and never really experienced first hand: do I stay for the job, or leave for the man? In this case, the answer was simple. And, to make the decision easier, I have a new job lined up with a substantially larger salary that will help me get my finances in order so a true life for us together becomes more and more of a reality.
What's the real bottom line here? I am not that girl, the one who abandons everything she loves for a man. We are in this adventure together, embarking on a new journey and turning the page to a new chapter in our lives as individuals and our shared experience. Will I miss Cincinnati and all its nuances, and the wonderful friends I've made over the last three years? Of course, but it doesn't mean that I will never see or speak to them again. It's an apartment, not a jail cell, as my Aunt in her infinite wisdom told me over halibut and salmon at Teller's in Hyde Park. I will not be trapped there, and neither will he. It's a step forward, one we're finally able to take together, and one I've been waiting to take for a long time now. I'm excited, nervous, and above all that, happy.
When it comes to sacrificing my personal happiness and my tenous sanity to keep things status quo--what's the good of staying in a job I love but without one of the people I love most in my life there to share it with me? So that's why I'm leaving, and I feel like it has nothing but positivity surrounding it. Leaving my job on a positive not to start a new one that is actually advancing my career instead of remaining stagnant, getting a new place with plenty of upgrades from my current one is definitely a plus, and not having to come home to an empty, messy apartment and eat Lean Cuisines and drive two hours on the weekends is by far the biggest improvement of all.
I'm looking forward to Indianapolis. It strikes me as a young city, still in its growth spurt, and ripe with possibilities for two young people still getting used to this whole concept of growing up. I will miss Cincinnati, definitely. I will miss Oktoberfest (but I'll be back for it every year, religiously--believe it), I will miss having a professional baseball team (although it will be vaguely nice to have a football that is actually decent), I will miss the old Tudor-style homes and cozy cottages peppered throughout my neighborhood, I will miss Slim's and Melt in Northside, I will miss being able to get Christian Moerlein on tap and Graeter's in the store, I will miss Newport on the Levee in all its hulking glory, and I will miss that spectacular skyline vista, quite possibly more than any of those other things. I will miss the friends and family I have here in Cincinnati, beyond a shadow of a doubt, but that only gives me a deeper reason to stay in touch. And I'm excited about everything Indianapolis has to offer--perks that come from living in one of the Top 10 largest cities in the county, and from living a few hours closer to Chicago, and from having a little bit more financial security, and from having the someone I want more than anyone else to experience it there with me.
My mother told me that "Now is the time to do this--when you're young." I am young still, sort of, and it feels like I've been in constant motion over the last three years. I am ready to slow things down, I am ready to stay in one place with one person for a while, and I am headed west to fulfill that odd feeling of manifest destiny, or something along those lines. It's going to be interesting, it's going to be different, but by God, it's going to be fun.
Gorgeous Cincinnati photos from Cincy Images.
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