Who Knows Eva's Real Hometown?
Every time I do well in a major competition and there's a press release that mentions my name, I am assigned a different hometown. For a few years, I listed my hometown as Woodhaven, Michigan, which is where my parents live. Then, I started giving my hometown as Kearns, Utah, because that is where I've lived for 5 years, and that is where I own a home. After this year's Fall World Cup Qualifier, US Speedskating gave my hometown as Naperville, Illinois, which is my place of birth.
As long as I've been watching the Olympics, I've sensed that an athlete's hometown is very important to that person's story. I have never felt that I have a "hometown," for example, in the sense that Bonnie Blair had a hometown. On the other hand, I feel that my almost nomadic lifestyle is truly representative of the lives of many of my fellow Americans.
What is the place that you should call your "hometown?" Is it your place of birth? Is it the place where your family lived the longest while you were growing up, or is it where your parents live now? Maybe it has nothing to do with where your parents choose to live. Maybe your hometown is the place where YOU have chosen to live. Maybe it is the place where you have formed most of your own personal and professional connections.
My brother Mark and I were both born in Naperville, IL - a suburb of Chicago. Since then, our family has lived in Kokomo, IN; Muskegon, MI; Mason City, IA; and Woodhaven, MI. Dad was a general practice physician who worked at various urgent care clinics; Mark and I used to joke that "Dad must have worked in every urgent care center along the I-94 corridor between Detroit and Chicago."
After graduating from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1999, I went to grad school in Duarte, California. From there, I took a leave of absence in 2001 to come back to competitive speedskating in Salt Lake City.
As far as speedskating goes, I got started in the sport while my family lived in Muskegon. I still have many friends in the West Michigan Speedskating Club who follow my skating career.
I don't feel too much of a connection to Woodhaven, Michigan, even though my parents live there. I feel more like I belong to the places where I have chosen to live and to work, which have been Southern California and Salt Lake City.
I'm not anyone's "Hometown Girl," which can be taken as either a good thing or a bad thing. I think it's good; all the more evidence that everything I have done in this sport, I have done on my own. But even though I belong to nobody, my story belongs to everybody.
Every time I do well in a major competition and there's a press release that mentions my name, I am assigned a different hometown. For a few years, I listed my hometown as Woodhaven, Michigan, which is where my parents live. Then, I started giving my hometown as Kearns, Utah, because that is where I've lived for 5 years, and that is where I own a home. After this year's Fall World Cup Qualifier, US Speedskating gave my hometown as Naperville, Illinois, which is my place of birth.
As long as I've been watching the Olympics, I've sensed that an athlete's hometown is very important to that person's story. I have never felt that I have a "hometown," for example, in the sense that Bonnie Blair had a hometown. On the other hand, I feel that my almost nomadic lifestyle is truly representative of the lives of many of my fellow Americans.
What is the place that you should call your "hometown?" Is it your place of birth? Is it the place where your family lived the longest while you were growing up, or is it where your parents live now? Maybe it has nothing to do with where your parents choose to live. Maybe your hometown is the place where YOU have chosen to live. Maybe it is the place where you have formed most of your own personal and professional connections.
My brother Mark and I were both born in Naperville, IL - a suburb of Chicago. Since then, our family has lived in Kokomo, IN; Muskegon, MI; Mason City, IA; and Woodhaven, MI. Dad was a general practice physician who worked at various urgent care clinics; Mark and I used to joke that "Dad must have worked in every urgent care center along the I-94 corridor between Detroit and Chicago."
After graduating from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1999, I went to grad school in Duarte, California. From there, I took a leave of absence in 2001 to come back to competitive speedskating in Salt Lake City.
As far as speedskating goes, I got started in the sport while my family lived in Muskegon. I still have many friends in the West Michigan Speedskating Club who follow my skating career.
I don't feel too much of a connection to Woodhaven, Michigan, even though my parents live there. I feel more like I belong to the places where I have chosen to live and to work, which have been Southern California and Salt Lake City.
I'm not anyone's "Hometown Girl," which can be taken as either a good thing or a bad thing. I think it's good; all the more evidence that everything I have done in this sport, I have done on my own. But even though I belong to nobody, my story belongs to everybody.
posted by Eva at 6:33 PM
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