I’m In an Akron State of Mind

Ohio Is Where You Go to Stop Daydreaming

I didn’t choose Ohio, it chose me.

“No, you chose it here. You could’ve gone somewhere else. You had options,” says my roommate, a New Yorker, as he snarks through a puff of cigarette. I suppose he’s right. I was living in New Orleans when I was accepted to doctoral programs in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Indiana, Pennsylvania, and I freely chose to spend my next five years in Akron, Ohio. But I didn’t want to admit to myself, or anyone else, that my current geographic location was my choice.

Family …