Although Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre over 170 years ago, its story of a young woman’s journey to find independence, purpose, and home continues to resonate with people today – people like Kelly Gunn. In Jane Eyre, the main character, Jane, bounces from place to place, facing adversity at each turn and struggling to find a sense of belonging. Jane, like Kelly, feels like an outsider. The two women are subjected to societal expectations, yet refuse to yield their sense of self – to conform to people or a place that tries to change them. Instead, they set out on their own, forging their own path to find somewhere or someone that feels like home. While Kelly’s heart belongs to Oregon, she lives here in Meadville – taking a page out of Jane’s book in her pursuit of creating positive change to transform the town into a place more welcoming to her and others who feel like outsiders.
Uprooted
By: Gracie Miller
They say that home is where the heart is. But what if what’s in your heart – your favorite books, artists you admire, your love of nature – isn’t shared by those around you? Where, then, is home?
Kelly Gunn was born and raised in Meadville, yet it’s never felt like home to her. The Meadville she grew up in gave the entire football team jobs at the railroad for winning a game, while kids with a passion for art felt like they didn’t matter. “I was an outsider,” Kelly says. Growing up in Meadville, Kelly was constantly reminded that she didn’t belong.
So, she left.
Kelly dropped out of school in the 10th grade, hitchhiked across the country, and swore she’d never look back. She drove past fields growing crops she’d never heard of, along the winding paths of mountains she’d only ever read about, until she found herself in the lush and mysterious forests of Oregon.
“As soon as I got out of the car,” Kelly says, “It was like the clouds opened up. My heart opened up, and I could feel this place embracing me – telling me, ‘You are home.’”
Kelly fell in love with Oregon. “Everything was so much more laid-back,” she says. For the first time in her life, the people around her shared what was in her heart; they possessed a love for literature, art, and the environment that she’d never seen in Meadville.
Every three years, Kelly returned to Meadville to visit her family for the holidays. “It took me three years to forget how much I hated it,” she jokes. Each time, she was reminded of why she left in the first place, and longed to go home – her real home.
For over thirty years, Kelly’s heart was planted in Oregon. However, as time passed, the place she loved began to wither away; forests were cut down, people lost their homes, and the costs were too much to bear. In order to survive, Kelly had to uproot herself – moving back to the place she once fled.
The next twenty years of Kelly’s life were a blur. She was back in Meadville, raising three kids on her own while teaching twenty-something others for a living. There was no time to become reacquainted with Meadville, to see how it has grown.
It wasn’t until retirement that Kelly began to smell the roses. She’s joined things like the MARC Community Garden, and is beginning to appreciate the new and improved Meadville.
It’ll never be Oregon. But, a seedling of love for Meadville has sprouted in Kelly’s heart, growing the more she immerses herself within the community. “It’s the people,” she says, “that make it feel like home.”
Kelly Gunn