The offices of the Collegiate are located on the third floor of Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall on GRCC’s Grand Rapids campus. We are in the heart of the city’s downtown area. Like so many of those who live, work, or study here, the constant vibrancy and movement of the city are so much a part of our daily routine that we don’t even tend to think about it.
I do not include myself in this category. At the time of writing, I have lived in the greater Grand Rapids area for all of a month and a half. Most of my life was spent in the one-stoplight town of Grayling, Michigan. About 1,800 people resided within the city limits, the majority of whom were dispersed among the woods and the back country. The complexity, culture, and scale of this city, larger than the one I came from by a literal hundredfold, create an environment that, while alluring, is altogether foreign to me.
This is true in the most complex and in the simplest of ways. For example: sheer convenience…