In the Dayton City Paper

I’ve been contributing to the Dayton City Paper since April. The column runs monthly and is supposed to be about the greater Ohio outdoors, although the editor asked me to write a story about the WAIW? quest. I just finished the story and will post it after it runs in the DCP.

I thought it might be difficult to sum up three months into 800 words, but I think I managed quite well.

Until then, you can read the introductory column below the cut.

Hello Ohio

Hello Ohio, it’s me again
By Kelsey Timmerman

My name is Kelsey and I’m from Ohio.

There. That wasn’t easy for me.

For the past five years I’ve managed to escape The Heart of it All, The Birthplace of Flight. Ohio may be round on both sides and “Hi” in the middle, but to me it has always been flat fields of corn and beans. In rural Ohio, north of Dayton, where I was born and raised, there seemed to be little else.

As a kid you learn fast that beans are absolutely no fun. They tangle around your feet and leave welts on your legs.

Corn is somewhat better. My brother and I launched countless expeditions into fields of corn to find baseballs and Nerf boomerangs. We never found them, but it was fun searching for a while. With a little imagination a field of corn could be some alien planet, but mostly it was just a boring field of corn.

When you look at a list of the most exciting produce in the Midwest, tomatoes have to be at the top. When you’re eight, there’s nothing quite like acres and acres of shiny red projectiles. But all it takes is one time, one perfect lob at a glistening white Cadillac traveling down Ellis Road at 55 mph, and your days of playing with tomatoes are over.

By the time I graduated from Miami University, I was long done playing with Ohio produce (sure, there was the potato gun in high school, but they’re grown in Idaho). I was done with Ohio. I wanted out. I even came up with my own state motto: “Ohio, a great place to LEAVE!”

I wanted adventure. I left.

I kayaked in Thailand, rafted in New Zealand, climbed volcanoes, swam with sharks, slashed through jungles, and taught SCUBA diving. And that was just one of the five years I was gone.

Life was an adventure, the world my oyster. Ohio was for sorry suckers that didn’t know what they were missing.

I was a good son, a good brother, and a good boyfriend. I called home from internet cafes in Bucharest, Bangkok, and Baja. I was a citizen of the world, a resident of nowhere. But as I collected stories and photographs, a strange realization began to set in…

Ohio is my home.

I came back.

I found myself at the Ohio State BMV somewhat reluctant to trade in my Key West, Florida driver’s license. Perhaps it was me affirming the notion that of all the places in the world I could be I chose Ohio, or perhaps it was because my head on my Key West license had split in half and it was no longer a valid license, but I did it.

I was an Ohioan again.

Ohio isn’t a Mecca for outdoor adventure. But, you know, it ain’t too bad.

I learned to SCUBA dive in Ohio. The first time I kinda rolled a kayak was in Ohio. I once paddled with 1,400 paddlers on one of the country’s largest navigable waterways in Ohio. I climbed the masts of a tall ship and unfurled the sails in Ohio. I was sprayed by a skunk in Ohio. In Ohio I learned that mountain biking without a helmet is a bad idea.

Adventure is what you make of it. We don’t have an ocean, but we’ve got a lake as big as one. We don’t have mountains, but we’ve got some pretty big hills. Hiking that’ll kick your butt – got it. Rivers that will rock you – got it.

The best part is that Ohio is cheap. It’s our backyard. If you want to venture off to Africa and witness Victoria Falls, the world’s largest waterfall, great. Do it. You’ll chat with some of the other tourists about how great it is. Snap some photos. And after you’re there for three hours, you’ll get bored.

We’ve got waterfalls in Ohio too. There’s probably one near where you live that is unoccupied right this very minute. Go there. Snap some photos. Eat a PB&J sandwich. It may only take you an hour to get bored, but you’ll spend the night in your own bed and you’ll wake to a world filled with your own family and friends.

Whether you long for that next big adventure and assuage the longing by exploring the great Ohio outdoors, or Ohio is your big adventure, I hope you’ll follow this column. It’s about making your own adventures, the outdoors, the people in it, and lastly, about Ohio.

After all, Ohio is our home and it’s where our adventures begin.

“Ohio: There’s more to it than produce!”

It’s good to be back.

 
Add a comment
Kyle Timmerman says:

Great column, Kels! I still owe you for letting me take the heat for tomato-ing that Cadillac!

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