Detroit to the Upper Peninsula, the Michigan State of Mind is... Home
Michigan's state motto, Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice, still tells a lot about us, nearly 200 years after it was first written in Latin. The English translation -- "If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula, Look About You" -- still invites us to discover Michigan today.
And here's the thing about Michiganders: When we want to take pride in our state, we do look all around us. We like to brag about the whole place, all of Michigan, from the border with Indiana and Ohio right on north through the Upper Peninsula, from the dazzling eastern sand shores of Lake Michigan to the western edges of Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and Lake Ontario.
We may be auto workers from Detroit or cherry farmers from Traverse City, retail clerks from Kalamazoo or investment analysts from Birmingham, cops from Grand Rapids or teachers from Midland -- but when people ask us where we're from, we're likely to say "Michigan" first and only then point somewhere specific on our outstretched right palm.
Why is that? Call it the mi State of Mind: a confidence we feel these days in everything that Michigan represents, to ourselves and the world.
Maybe it comes from the fact that in Michigan, wherever we live, we have one another's backs.
And sure, maybe there's a bit of a chip on our collective shoulder because we were down so far, for so long -- and now we've come back.
Or maybe it's because we understand better than anyone else what a great place Michigan is, all over, from Tahquamenon Falls to Taylor, from Ann Arbor to Glen Arbor, from Benton Harbor to Mackinac Island.
Or -- it could be all of those things.
Wherever it comes from, show your pride in Michigan -- in all of Michigan -- with one-of-a-kind gear from mi State of Mind!