Chris on 
I live in Central Wisconsin, and I like living here. I think that I have opportunities to do the things I love to do, be with the people that I care about, and really be happy. But, during the two winter holidays (Christmas and Thanksgiving) I get bombarded with this idea that I am stupid, lame, do not know what fun is, am living a life with few choices in food, drink, culture, laughter, connection, happiness. I learn that my life sucks, and I am only happy because I am too stupid to know what actual happiness, fun, culture, drinking, live music or fun even is.
It happens every year during these times. You get text messages, facebook messages, tweets, or actual phone calls from old friends who live someplace else who are coming home to be with their parents, extended family, or whatever….the call to GO OUT. So, the nightlife is overrun by people from other towns, but these are old friends so I am thrilled to see them.
What I am not thrilled to do is spend an entire weekend talking about how lame Wausau is, and how much wherever is so much better. Tell me, have you heard…
“I just could not live without a REAL sushi place!”
“How can you live here? There is not even a real grocery store. Seriously I could not live without WHOLE FOODS!”
“I mean what are there, like 3 bars in this whole town, and they are all so (insert derogatory statement here)!”
“You cannot even get a good cup of coffee (insert fair trade, organic) here.”
“There is not one (paleo, raw, vegan, whole, slow) menu in any restaurant here.”
“I do not know why people even have cellphones here; there is no 4g (LTE). Data is so slow.”
“No one in this town even uses (insert hot social media platform of the moment). Facebook, ugh!”
“How does anyone do business here. There aren’t even any (start ups, VC’s)!”
“No public transit after 5? I cannot wait to get home.”
“I cannot even find a yoga studio in Wausau on Google.”
I get it, you like where you live now. That makes sense. You grew up here, and you surely were tortured by the Grass is Greener theory. That is absolutely something that makes sense to me. But, let me clue you in on something…
As we sat at the Domino, or the Hiawatha, and you got drunker and louder and more obnoxious about how everything around you was lame, you were heard by people who call this place home. Some people who choose to live here after living someplace else. Some people who are raising their families here, who are enjoying their day to day life here.
Sure, of course we do not have a lot of stuff that maybe some others think is super important, but not all of us are somehow being held culturally hostage by whatever yardstick you want to judge human success by.
Look, I am not a rosy-eyed optimist; I think there is a lot in this town that I find objectionable. But, when you show up for like two weeks a year, drink our coffee, beer, eat our food, and spend the whole time telling us how great Chicago is (just to be clear, Schaumberg is just barely Chicago), and how much you hate coming home, and how quaint (insert other demeaning word) it all is, just remember someone cooked that food, served that beer, owned that restaurant.
And when you leave, someone will eat, drink, laugh, fall in love, raise their kids, slow dance, create, invent, and grow up here.
Just like you did.
Nice work…
Nicely done. Represent!
I believe this is the first writing of yours that I agree 100% with. Well done.
We just moved here last March. One of the MANY things I adore about Wausau is the patience. If a trend or a style or a cuisine or a technology is really worth all that hype…it will get here, no doubt. And when it does, it will be cheaper, easier, less stressful, and possibly more beautiful than it was when it debuted…in Schaumberg.
I am very proud to live in Wausau. We could have moved anywhere, really, and certainly anywhere in Wisconsin. We moved here because it is beautiful, close to the things we love, brimming over with potential, and looks absolutely nothing like Schaumberg.
Incidentally, I find the sushi to be pretty decent, the wireless not half bad, the coffee quite good, and the people to be just fantastic. If you want a Whole Foods experience, plant a garden, bake a loaf, or head downtown to the Downtown Grocery.
Looking forward to getting to know you all. Thanks for being such a great group of folks so far. We’re very happy to be here.
Welcome to Wausau, Brian and Catherine! And thank you, Mr. Corvino, for your observations. We’re living in southern WI, (not by choice – jobs, in-laws, etc. are here :(, near Madison, where sushi abounds and the internet is fast is everyone is hip and there are Birkenstock sandals in every store and all the beautiful people only say things that “don’t offend or judge.” My heart, however, still lives in Marathon Park, and wanders down 3rd St. under the Christmas lights, and knows that the odds of running into a familiar face at County Market are pretty darn good – in short, Wausau will always be my home. When I was growing up, I took off on my bike on summer mornings, “exploring” out by the lumber yard, or under the Pine Grove Cemetery pines, or through the peaceful smallness of “the south end, ” in a time when girls could live freely and without fear. When I was a teenage smarty pants, any place but Wausau seemed the place to be. Now, having sampled what the urban prisons have to offer, however, I’ll that town tucked under Rib Mountain, “just on the edge of north”, any day. The Indians named it “far away place” – they must have known how many things there are to move far away from! Thanks for your feisty response to the gerbils-in-the wheel types who chase after lattes and Whole Foods, and can’t see that they’ve left a lot of “whole life” behind them in the dust. Be thankful, I guess, that they only come home once or twice a year.
Is there a way we can get this circulated to the entire country?
Well, sure. Just email this sucker out far and wide. Tweet it, facebook it, the whole deal. Copy and paste it if you like.
Do your thing.
Thank you so much for this article! Very well said. I moved here from Phoenix, AZ and was raised in Sacramento, CA where I could get all of the services you mentioned and you could never get me back into those cities. I have five kids and it is safer here and the ambiance is wonderful. Psha to the “BerthaBetterThanYous”
Great piece there, Dino!
I am proud to say that I spent the first 29 of my 37 years in Wausau. I really enjoyed my time there and made some very good friends. The people who put down Wausau based on their trivial experiences in big cities is appalling. As you citied, they point out chain restaurants, grocery stores, cellular connectivity, and other vain reasons why larger cities are so much better. Bigger cities do have a lot to offer, but it is a matter of personal opinion and reasons tailored to the individual that make up the reasons for living in one place or another. Wausau has a lot to offer as well and its inhabitants ought not be persecuted by those who have chosen to leave. If someone chooses to stay or leave, I sincerely hope that it is for the right reasons and not because they wanted to brag in a back-handed way about their ability to spend their whole paycheck at Whole Foods.
I’ve got a great example of the opposite. My best friend since we were 5 has lived his entire post-college life (more than 15 years) right in the thick of things in Chicago. Lincoln Park, West Loop, Downtown, etc. Now with a wife and two kids, they still live in the city of Chicago (not a suburb), just a few short miles further from downtown. Not Schaumburg or some other strip mall nightmare that’s a 45-minute commute to the city.
Not once has he ever pulled that nonsense on me. Genuinely appreciates coming home and visiting. Doesn’t judge me or others because we live here.
Dino, you probably already know this, but with regards to the folks who cop that attitude, it’s definitely a “them” problem moreso than a “you” problem.
First, I find it strange that someone called me Mr. Corvino.
Second, Tom, it is a them problem. I have no problem with where I live, or anything of that sort. I mean, I have problems, but I tend to vocalize those.
But, the Wausau bashing always seems like that thing you did in college before finals, the suffering one ups manship.
“I have 4 finals this week”
“Thats nothing I have 3 finals, and two papers and 1 oral presentation”
“Thats nothing man, I have 4 finals, a Chaucer paper, two chem labs to complete, and an organic chem identification test”
On and on and on.