Why this former Hawkeye basketball player came home to Iowa after 35 years

When I told my friends in Austin, Texas, that we were moving to Iowa, I received looks of shock and dismay — even pity.

It was amusing had it not felt sad that people can so easily write off an entire state.

“Have you ever been to Iowa?” I’d ask. They’d shake their heads. “What do you know about the state?” I got muddled responses and shoulder shrugs. My wife’s friends were even worse, “How could you?!”

It’s been 35 years since I lived in Iowa. Upon graduating from college, I couldn’t wait to leave. I saw it as a badge of honor, like a rite of passage. New York City was my first move in a quixotic journey that would land me in seven different states as well as Brazil, The Netherlands and Switzerland.