Profile

Beth Taylor
Strategist for Fairly Painless Advertising

My husband, Paul, and I were living in a Chicago suburb -- I was working for a large advertising firm, was pregnant for our second child and Paul was being promoted in his company -- and we realized that he was going to miss the critical years with our kids due to the commute time and long work hours. We needed to find a better life/work balance and we didn't think we'd find it in Chicago.
 
We're originally from Detroit and have a cottage in Glen Arbor, but we didn't know much about West Michigan. We had friends who had moved from Chicago to Grand Rapids, so on our way up to our cottage we stopped to see them. We looked around Grand Rapids and saw there were opportunities.
 
We sold our house and Paul found a job, so in 1998 we moved to East Grand Rapids. Paul's job is just a 15-minute drive away!
 
In Chicago, we never could have ended up with the great house we have or with our kids in such a high quality school system. We wanted them to be close to school and to be close to a lake, and we have both. Our kids have been able to grow up on water because we have a ski boat on Reeds Lake, just minutes from our house. Being close to water is what's great about West Michigan.
 
We belong to a multi-cultural church that embraces diversity, our neighborhood is walkable and the whole area is busy with arts-related activities. I love the Grand Rapids Art Museum, I think it's a jewel and it's fabulous to have that so close, and we're close to Frederik Meijer Gardens.
 
And the people here are really friendly. Many of my friends moved here from other cities and we're always talking about the random acts of kindness people here do for each other. We call them Grand Rapids Stories. Like when a friend of mine bought something at a Big Box store that was too big to fit in her car -- another customer put the item in his truck and drove it to her house!
 
If you're thinking about moving here, come for a visit. I think you'll be surprised at everything West Michigan has to offer.
 
 
 
Asgi F.
My wife and I were both born and raised in Sri Lanka but have lived for most of our lives in the USA. I moved to the US for my graduate education and following my doctoral training at the University of Illinois I also served as a member of the faculty and lived in the Chicago suburbs for the past ...MORE
Jim D.
I was completely unfamiliar with West Michigan -- to me "Michigan" meant Detroit, because I heard about Detroit in the news all the time with rampant unemployment, a lot of crime, a place people were fleeing. But when I got to West Michigan, people were very quick to tell me this isn't...MORE
Frances H.
I'm originally from Puerto Rico and have been in the United States for the past 23 years. Before coming here, I lived all over -- I went to school in Boston, then moved to New York, and then Texas while I worked in Mexico. I also lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.I came to We...MORE
Katrice S.
I never wanted to move from Chicago because our families are there and we have no one here in West Michigan, but my husband, Acy, got a promotion he couldn't afford to pass up, so we moved here. It's very different than Chicago because it's quiet. That was a big adjustment because we w...MORE
Sara A.
My husband, Rick, and I love skiing, so when we were thinking about moving to West Michigan the first thing we did was look up the annual snowfall -- we wanted to be in a place where it's snowy in the winter and beautiful in the summer. Hands down, the summers in West Michigan are unbeatable. It ...MORE
Sarah S.
My husband and I are both Michigan natives but we moved to Baltimore, Maryland and then Hawaii for my job with the federal government. After having two children and being so far from family, we really wanted to move back so our kids could get to know their extended family. Both my husband and I...MORE
Tracy T.
When my husband said, "What do you think about living in Grand Rapids, Michigan?" I said, "Michigan? Why would I want to go to Michigan? It's really, really cold up there." My husband is a cancer researcher who was recruited by the Michigan State University College of Human M...MORE
Yogesh C.
When I was told I'd be interviewing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, my original thought was it was a suburb of Detroit. I had to check it out on the map. I remember telling my wife that I liked the company, but I wasn't sure of the area because it sounded rather small. She convinced me to continue w...MORE
Beth T.
My husband, Paul, and I were living in a Chicago suburb -- I was working for a large advertising firm, was pregnant for our second child and Paul was being promoted in his company -- and we realized that he was going to miss the critical years with our kids due to the commute time and long work...MORE
David M.
I live in Grand Haven on the lakeshore, but grew up on the east side of Detroit. I first lived in West Michigan while attending Grand Valley State University and after graduation, and then I moved back to Detroit for 12 years. But I always had a kind of yearning to get back to West Michigan.&nbs...MORE