Maumee Bay State Park is a great little place.  It’s just east of Toledo and it just about hugs the southern coast of Lake Erie.

My wife and I have had the pleasure this weekend of staying in the park’s lodge.

One of the more amazing parts of our stay here is the view from the hotel.  If I look north from where I am now, the Monroe Edison plant seems to float in the water along the horizon.  And the Monroe shoreline trails off to the west all the way up to Luna Pier.

Aside from the smokestacks, Monroe County looks just beautiful and natural.  I guess it’s the kind of thing that space travelers see when they look back at earth.  All those little annoyances are swept away when you are able to see the forest from the trees.

Where are you from?  It’s a complicated question.  Jobs, family and education can pull a person in a thousand different directions.

New technology doesn’t help much.  The internet allows for communication across vast distances.  A person can keep in touch with friends or follow a favorite sports team from a thousand miles away.

So, place isn’t important, right? 

Well, I suppose that’s why I’m writing this blog. My name is Michael Ingels and place is still important to me. I am a Monroe native. My great-great-great grandparents built the log cabin that stands at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. My cousins run the Auto Body Plant near the Independent Dairy. And I practically grew up in the choir loft at St. Michael’s Church on Front Street.

I loved Monroe, but life happened. College pulled me to Ann Arbor and graduation hurled me to the outskirts of Chicago. Love and marriage carried me to Appleton, WI and teaching landed me back in Michigan in a little town called Addison. Along the way I’ve lived in a string of southern Michigan communities, like Tecumseh, Onsted and Manchester. My wife and I just bought a house in Adrian.

Every one of those places can lay some claim to the title of “home.”

But a funny thing happens when someone asks me that opening question. My answer is still “Monroe.” It’s the place that I know best. And, even after ten years away, it’s a place that I still love.

So, I’ll end with this question for you. Where are you from? And how did you get where you are today?