I moved to Dayton in 1984, ostensibly from AZ. (I taught for a year in Wisconsin, 60 miles from the nuthouse of Madison, in the UW system, but this was my first "real" job at a university).
I never liked Ohio. I never felt like an Ohioan. I longed for the day I could return to Arizona, my desert, my cactus, and my mountains. Green grass and trees bothered me!
I prayed daily for God to return me to my home. I prayed for the financial independence to retire to Phoenix early. It did not come. It was as though God rooted me here, and thwarted my every move out.
On Tuesday, the veil was lifted. Please---I don't mean to say that I'm important or that THOUSANDS of other people might not have similar stories, just that this is mine. On Tuesday, I worked, for the first time in 30 years, in a political campaign because the stakes were just too high.
On Tuesday, I became an Ohioan.
On Tuesday, I realize that God had put me here---and thousands like me, many against our personal desires---for one reason only: to stand in the gap against evil. I guarantee that if many of us could be instant millionaires, many people would move to other parts of the country. But on Tuesday, God needed us HERE. On previous days when I walked precincts and made a few calls---nothing compared to what some brave footsoldiers did---and on Tuesday, when I flushed precincts, taking critical data back to headquarters that showed me WE HAD WON, I realized that God had maneuvered not just me, but thousands of individual lives, to affect a great victory, not just for our state, and not just for our nation, but for all of mankind.
From this point on, I'm an Ohioan, and proud of it.
From a native Ohioan: welcome!
A word of thanks to you, LS; we've shared a bunch of threads this election season, and you have lifted the spirits of many who were ready to give up. Your confidence and dedication were infectious. Thank you!
We kept the faith, fought the fight, and won the victory.
Nice story LS.. thank you for sharing.. I too for too many years long to be elsewhere (and did "escape" for 30 years before returning.
As grown ups we like our own way.. it doesn't always happen, does it? but you have truly made lemonaid out of lemons..
hope you will join us in our FReeper Ohio get togethers. still trying to tie down time etc. will post on State board.
dolly