Last August I went to Cleveland for a wedding. I have heard someone call Cleveland, the “Mistake by the Lake”. So with that in mind, I was prepared to go and be bored by a rust belt city in decline. I’d never been to Cleveland and did not know what to expect. What I found was an amazing city that was in transition. I could spend this whole post talking about how beautiful Cleveland is, but you can go to their Chamber of Commerce for that. Cleveland is extremely beautiful and is like any other beautiful city. From that trip, a J. Cole song called “Love Yours” came to mind. just as I imagine Clevelanders lover Cleveland, we all should love our cities. We all could literally take a tour of our own cities and feel like we have gone on a trip. North Carolina, J. Cole’s and my home state, had a slogan that read “Discover the state you are in”. That phrase has multiple meanings, but ultimately it was meant for residents to travel within the state and be tourist here. Cleveland helped me realize that we should love and appreciate what we have. You don’t always have to jump on a plane in order to experience the beauty that life has to offer. Ironically i had to jump on a plane to understand that there is a ton of beauty like Cleveland’s where I live. But that concept can apply more broadly. Our lives are complex. We have our own perceptions of where we are and where we think we should be. But this is not specific to any one person. We all feel this way. We should learn to appreciate our journey. It is specific to us. Just as you don’t have to go to California to see a beautiful sunset, you don’t have to have a life any different from your own in order to appreciate the beauty in it. We all are blessed and the greatest blessing is seeing what is right in front of us.
Duvonne Everett