We always hear that young people don’t want to live in small towns like Galesburg. They want to go to the big cities like Chicago and New York. I reached out to three individuals- BJ Dieterich, Jordan Gunther, and John Simkins, who have decided to leave big city life for Galesburg. And I got Andrew Thomas to share why he chose to come back to Galesburg right after college.
These are four great people, and it is exciting to have them in our community.
BJ Dieterich
Massey- I know you lived in Chicago, specifically where did you live and where did you work in Chicago? What was your job?
BJ Dieterich- I lived in Chicago for nearly nine years, from July 2011 to March 2020. During that time, I called a few different neighborhoods home—starting in Wrigleyville for a year, then spending three years in Roscoe Village, and eventually settling in the West Town/Ukrainian Village/Wicker Park area for the remainder of my time there.
While in Chicago, I often joked that I had two jobs: my “real” job and my “fun” job. My primary job was (and still is) in IT sales. For the first seven years, I worked at CDW. At the same time, I coached women’s basketball at the University of Chicago for nine seasons..
Massey- What did you love about “big city life?”
BJ Dieterich- The energy of big city life is such a unique and exciting experience. You could truly feel it—it was almost like a rush to be part of it. One of the things I loved most was how easy it was to access major sporting events, concerts, and an endless variety of restaurants. I also really enjoyed spending time exploring all the different neighborhoods, each with its own personality. There was always something new, and that constant buzz made everyday different.
Massey- Sociologists always talk about when people relocate that sometimes there are things that “push” them away from where they live, other times there are things that “pull” them to the new location, but usually there is a combination of some pushing and pulling that makes a person make the decision. What were the things that caused you to leave Chicago and caused you to choose to live in Galesburg?
BJ Dieterich- The primary reason my wife, our 21-month-old daughter, and I left Chicago was the onset of COVID. At the time, my wife was 36 weeks pregnant, and when the lockdown began, we made the decision to leave the city on the night of March 17, 2020. We had a contract on a house in Western Springs and fully intended to return to the Chicago area.
However, after welcoming our second child in Galesburg, we found ourselves reacclimating to the slower, quieter, and more affordable lifestyle the town offers. Being surrounded by family and longtime friends here made the transition even easier. Over time, Galesburg began to feel less like a temporary stop and more like the right place for our family to grow.
Massey- What are you doing career-wise in Galesburg?
BJ Dieterich- Just like when I lived in Chicago, I have two jobs: my “real” job and my “fun” job. My real job is still in IT sales. I work remotely, which means my home serves as my office, but I’m frequently on the road meeting with prospects, customers, and partners across the Country.
My fun job is volunteering as a girls’ basketball coach at the local high school. With four kids now, I don’t get into the gym as much as I used to, but I stay involved as much as I can. Coaching continues to be something I enjoy, and I love being part of the community in that way.
Massey- Many GHS students say they would never want to live in Galesburg, what would you say to them about why Galesburg can be a great option?
BJ Dieterich- I remember having that same mindset when I was in high school! And honestly, I encourage GHS students to leave the area after graduation—go explore, see something different. Galesburg isn’t going anywhere.
There’s a lot to be gained by stepping outside your comfort zone: meeting new people, living in a new environment, and learning to be more independent and self-sufficient. But what you’ll also come to realize is that Galesburg isn’t so bad—in fact, it’s better than a lot of places.
Galesburg is a great option because of its convenience, affordability, and the genuinely good people who live here. Simple tasks that are easy in Galesburg can be frustrating in a big city. Need a gallon of milk on a Saturday afternoon? In Galesburg, that’s a quick trip. In a large city, it could easily take an hour or more. And while nothing is truly “cheap,” the cost of living here—especially housing—is significantly lower than in major metro areas. A home in Galesburg might cost a third or less of what you'd pay in a city.
There’s also a sense of friendliness and community here that’s hard to find elsewhere. It’s rare to go anywhere in town without getting a smile or a “hello.” In a big city, that kind of warmth can be surprisingly uncommon.
So, my advice? Go explore the world. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself appreciating just how good you had it in Galesburg.
Massey- If you have any friends come to visit you in Galesburg, what are a few of the places or things that are on your “must show them” list?
BJ Dieterich- My wife and I have had quite a few friends visit us in Galesburg since we moved back, and the reactions are always positive—sometimes even a little envious! Most of our visitors are from Chicago or the surrounding metro area, and many of them have never experienced a lifes with little to no traffic, uncrowded stores, friendly faces everywhere, and so much open space and greenery.
Whenever we have out-of-town guests, we make sure to give them a tour of Galesburg. We show off the high school, our many parks, the downtown area, and some of the beautiful historic homes—those are staples on the tour. Depending on their interests, we’ve taken friends to local coffee shops, downtown restaurants, and for a beer at one of the bars or breweries. We’ve also visited Discovery Depot, attended the Stearman Fly-In and the Great Balloon Race, gone golfing, and spent time at the parks.
There’s a lot to enjoy here, and it’s always fun to see Galesburg through the eyes of someone experiencing it for the first time.
Jordan Gunther
Massey- I know you lived in Chicago, specifically where did you live and where did you work in Chicago? What was your job?
Jordan- When I first moved to Chicago, I lived just a few blocks north of Wrigley Field. After that, I spent most of my time living in Wicker Park and Lincoln Park. After college, I landed a job at CareerBuilder.com doing sales for their recruitment technology tools.
Massey- What did you love about "big city life"?
Jordan- There’s always something fun to do any time, any day of the week. Concerts, sporting events, comedy shows, new restaurants, or just walking around taking it all in. I loved how walkable my neighborhoods were. I had a car, but I’d go months without driving it. Some of my favorite memories are from those Saturdays where the roommates and I would head out for lunch with no plans and just see where the day took us.
Massey- What were the things that caused you to leave Chicago and caused you to choose to live in Galesburg?
Jason- Around 2017, I started feeling the pull to come back home. A lot of my friends had moved out to the suburbs, and I realized I wasn’t really taking advantage of city life anymore. Then the pandemic hit, and that changed everything. My job went remote, my hobbies shifted, and my overall outlook on life changed. That’s when moving back to Galesburg started to make sense.
Massey- What are you doing career-wise in Galesburg?
Jordan- I’m still in sales for an online recruitment technology company. It’s been a wild ride. From selling against newspaper ads back in the day to now helping lead the way in AI-powered recruiting. We’re an AI recruiting platform that works with medium to enterprise-sized companies. Most companies are trying to understand how they can adopt AI within their recruiting workflows and that’s where Leoforce comes in.
Massey- Many GHS students say they would never want to live in Galesburg, what would you say to them about why Galesburg can be a great option?
Jason- Honestly, that was me. Life changes, and your perspective changes too. Galesburg is home, and it’s got a lot of great things going for it. I do think it’s important to get out and explore when you’re young. Live in a big city, travel, have some adventures. But once you do, you start to really appreciate what makes this place special.
Massey- If you have any friends come to visit you in Galesburg, what are a few of the places or things that are on your "must show them" list?
Jason- We usually take a quick drive around town to show off the old houses and architecture. Then we’ll walk through downtown from Seminary Street to Cherry Street. If my friends are from a big city, we’ll take a little cruise through the country roads so they can see how peaceful it is out here.
Andrew Thomas
Massey- I am sure after college you had other options, including working in larger cities, and then decided to come back to Galesburg. What drew you back to Galesburg?
Andrew- I grew up in Galesburg and have tons of connections in Galesburg. My career path is all about connections, so I felt no need to leave. My parents are here and I have many friends that are still here. I wanted to come back and make Galesburg a better place.
Massey- What are you doing career-wise in Galesburg?
Andrew- I am a financial planner for Charterpoint Wealth Strategies.
Massey- Many GHS students say they would never want to live in Galesburg, what would you say to them about why Galesburg can be a great option?
Andrew- I always push back on that question with "why?" The usual answer is that there is nothing to do in Galesburg, but I don't find that true at all. You can come back and make Galesburg a place where people want to live. There are many wonderful nonprofits that need volunteers, and you can fill lots of time by volunteering. If you put yourself out there, you will meet many wonderful people that are also invested in making Galesburg and the surrounding area a great place to live.
Massey- If you have any college friends come to visit you in Galesburg, what are a few of the places or things that are on your “must show them” list?
Andrew- We always go downtown. Dinner at Iron Spike or Cherry Street, then to see Sammy at Bar 65 or to see Blake and his crew at Reserve
John Simkins
Massey- I know you lived in New York, specifically where did you live and where did you work in NYC? What was your job?
Some context - in 2010 I moved to New York City after living in St. Paul, MN where I got my BS in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Economics and a minor in Studio Art at Macalester College.
My interests at that time were at the intersection of these disciplines (how to design and construct buildings sustainability and affordably) - I almost went down the path of architecture school at the University of Illinois, but after visiting a college friend deep in the throes of architecture school, he convinced me to detour from that path. Also as baseball was another passion of mine, I wanted the opportunity to play college ball - given I wasn't DI Big Ten material, I accepted playing all four years of DIII ball at MAC. . I also benefited financially from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) deal thanks to my mom (Marcy) working at Knox as their Wellness Coordinator. That was a huge selling point as MAC's tuition was cost prohibitive otherwise.
My motivation for moving to NYC was to attend Columbia University for their Masters of Science in Sustainability Management program as part of their School of Continuing Education. This was the first year that Columbia offered this degree, and with my undergrad education and early work experience, it was a great fit and exciting to be part of this inaugural class. NYC just so happened to be the locale - it wasn’t the driving force, but an exciting aspect of the decision!
During those years at CU, I lived near the Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan. I lived on118th Street and Frederick Douglas in Harlem with three other roommates in a very nice brownstone where we occupied the first two floors. I later moved slightly south to the Upper West Side, living on 96th & Amsterdam, then 87th Street & West End and then finally on 91st & Riverside. The apartments were always small (less than 1,000 SF) and the rent was high, but it was in my mind the quintessential NYC experience for a 20-something who wanted to test their ability to "make it" in the Big Apple.
Early on in the 2.5 year Sustainability Management program, I met a woman (Grace Arnold) who worked at Citibank in their corporate real estate department. This is the team that oversees the design, construction and operations of the company's buildings (offices, call centers, retail bank branches) that 200,000+ employees work in around the world. With over 500 offices globally and 1,000+ bank locations just in the US, it was very exciting to have an impact at such a grand scale. Grace was in charge of ensuring any newly built retail bank branches across the US were built to an industry recognized green building standard called LEED. LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”. Given my background and passion for sustainable architecture, I jumped at the chance to work for her.
In essence, my job was to work with building construction teams - architects, general contractors, engineers and project managers to ensure the design and construction of each branch adhered to the LEED standards Citibank wanted to achieve. Each time a building was built, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) would review our design and building documents to verify we met their standards. I would have anywhere from 10-30 different construction projects I would have to coordinate at one time to keep track of all the documentation. Often in NYC I’d visit the sites themselves, but we had projects all over the US, and towards the end working on projects internationally, such as in Dubai.
Over the years at Citibank I grew my overall knowledge of corporate real estate operations, beyond just sustainability. In 2014, I took a global position at American Express, where I worked on coordinating big office building operations, and no longer on lots of small retail branches.
At Amex I was able to climb the ladder, ultimately becoming a Vice President in their corporate real estate team during the COVID-19 pandemic. My main job was to lead a team that defined, developed and executed the workplace experience for Amex's 65,000 colleagues around the world. Particularly coming out of the pandemic, drawing people to choose the office as their destination for work was a big focus of Amex's executive team, giving me a sometimes surreal amount of exposure to the C-Suite decision-makers for the company, whilst also getting to engage with our amazing staff who made the day-to-day workplace experience happen (janitorial staff, cafeteria staff, building engineers, etc). Sustainability had gone from my focus to one of five disciplines I oversaw, which also included workplace safety, design, hospitality, operations and long term planning.
This June however my time at Amex came to a close as an org restructure resulted in my role being broken into a couple jobs, based back again in NYC. I was very fortunate to be a virtual worker for over four years here in Galesburg, but as the pandemic ended and companies wanted their people back in the offices, being the "office strategy guy" but not working in the HQ admittedly didn't make much sense!
Massey- What did you love about "big city life"?
What I loved most about NYC was the ability to walk in any direction and stumble across something unexpectedly amazing. Many of my weekends were spent exploring the city - picking a neighborhood I wasn't too familiar with and wandering from block to block. If a shop or restaurant caught my attention, I'd peek in and check out the space or browse the menu. I often ended up finding places I'd never even known to look for and became ones I'd frequent often. And what budding "ew Yorker" doesn't feel a little smug telling your friends about an amazing you alone"discovered"!
I also loved NYC for how it expands your perspectives on humanity. Manhattan is the biggest amalgamation of different people, crammed into one tightly packed island, all coexisting. While of course there were the occasional moments you'd pick the other side of the street, my experience was that the vast majority of people were living a largely shared experience. The grind of the morning commute, the struggle to make ends meet at times, the feeling of both being surrounded by people but also being strangely alone...I definitely came away from living in NYC feeling more connected to my fellow man than uniquely different.
Massey- Sociologists always talk about when people relocate that sometimes there are things that "push" them away from where they live, other times there are things that "pull" them to the new location, but usually there is a combination of some pushing and pull that makes a person make the decision. What were the things that caused you to leave NY and caused you to choose to live in Galesburg?
Great question and yes definitely a mix of push and pull for me.
The pushes:
1) COVID 19: When COVID hit in early 2020, Amex, like most businesses without essential workers, went fully virtual. That moment changed the equation for me - I now didn't have to live in NYC to work at the place I wanted to. Also the pandemic reset priorities for many of us, myself included. I wanted to be closer to home - my sister Jane had recently had a baby girl (Bode), and as a new uncle I didn't want to miss that. She was still in Wisconsin at the time (now living in Galesburg just three houses away), but it was closer than the 1,000 miles from Manhattan.
2) Future planning: While I enjoyed my 20s and early 30s in NYC, the prospect of buying an apartment or even a home in commuting distance to downtown NYC was hard to swallow. This was especially true when I'd go on Zillow and see 3 - 4 lovely bedroom homes in Galesburg with mortgages half the cost of my rent...the economics part of my brain was sending too many red flags. Also the idea of raising children - which I still hoped for - just seemed untenable in NYC, again with Galesburg as my benchmark for what an idyllic situation would be.
Reflecting on it, growing up in Galesburg - albeit with its own pros & cons - had a very positive impact on me...so much so that it was the benchmark for the experience I wanted to give my children, should I ever be so fortunate to have them. For me, NYC just wouldn't do - at least for the earlier phases in life.
The pulls:
1) Family: Tied to my pushes, my mom and dad (Marcy & Tom) still lived in Galesburg. Both were healthy and very well rooted in the community, so when the window of opportunity came in 2020 to spend more time enjoying life together, I eagerly took it. It had been 15+ years of catching up 3-4 short holiday breaks...not enough time to get past the pleasantries and really fall into a rhythm of less planned, unstructured life together again. As mentioned, soon after my sister Janie, her husband Trey and little girl Bode came to the same conclusion in 2021.
2) Affordability: The juxtaposition of NYC to Galesburg in these two areas is simply too big not to mention, especially when I got to keep my well paying job at Amex. Having to not grind out an existence financially was not the reason, but my quality of life has increased tremendously on that measure since moving back home.
3) Access: Like affordability, my quality of life is flat out better here just by not having to sit in a cab, subway car or walk miles each day to get from point A to B. The amount of "to do list" menial tasks I get done in Galesburg in a single day is orders of magnitude more efficient, giving me more time to spend being a loving husband, chipping away at side projects or time more spontaneity in my day. Yes, I gave up the exploration of NYC that I loved, but even Galesburg is a place I can explore and find hidden gems I never knew about.
4) Community Impact: Whilst I had my social groups in NYC, I was always deeply drawn towards the community from a city-wide perspective. A part of me always wanted to work for the Mayor's Office of NYC, albeit a difficult gig to get. Coming back to Galesburg however, community involvement seems truly only limited by the amount of hours in the day. I've been fortunate to help my dad out with the city's Project 350 the past few years, along with a few other community development projects here and there. For me, there's nothing like spending time improving the wellbeing of others that satisfies my desire for a purposeful life. Galesburg is an excellent place to live for that, and I've found so many like-minded individuals of all backgrounds here with the same mission.
Massey- What are you doing career-wise in Galesburg?
Funny you should ask! As I mentioned, this past June my chapter at American Express ended, so at the moment I'm enjoying the perks of a severance package that expires next May. Coincidentally the timing is great as my wife Kylie and I are expecting our first little one in March next year! This gives me ample time to actually step back and enjoy the ride of pregnancy with her, catch up on house projects, do some traveling and really reflect on what I'd like the next chapter of my life to look like. Early thoughts are definitely still focusing on the intersection of environmental sustainability, the built environment and community development. Ideally I'm fully invested in joining my fellow passionate 'Burgers on making this a place you'd be proud to live in and brag about to your city-dwelling friends (as I often do). If anyone wants to grab a coffee and chat...my calendar is pretty wide open until March!
Massey- Many GHS students say they would never want to live in Galesburg, what would you say to them about why Galesburg can be a great option?
I mean, I totally get that sentiment, especially if your childhood in Galesburg wasn't all that great or your family has since moved on from the area. Galesburg has its acquired tastes for sure, and candidly I would encourage GHS students to live elsewhere for a while. I learned so much about myself and others though stepping out of what I knew into something foreign and intimidating. Everyone has their own path to venture down and I get equally as excited when I see people making a positive impact in the world who once hailed from Galesburg as I do when someone moves back.
That said, if like me you find yourself yearning to escape the city grind and plant some roots, Galesburg is really a great choice. In my experience, you can have a very rich and well-rounded life here with few barriers to entry on any front. And if you ever need that "big city" itch scratched, you're $50 and a 3 hour train ride away from downtown Chicago!
Massey- If you have any friends come to visit you in Galesburg, what are a few of the places or things that are on your "must show them" list?
Let's start with food - my city friends are obviously going to be a little snobby so I have to show off my favorites. For breakfast we hit Judy's where 99 times out of 100 you'll actually get to say hit Judy as she's flying around to check on her guests. They get the signature selfie and post it to all their friends that they actually met Judy and the pancakes are LEGIT.
Then we probably wind up at Orange Cup Side Hustle or Inkeepers for lunch where they are amazed at the selection of drinks, food and desserts. They're also amazed at how everyone seems to know everyone...in a good way.
For dinner, there's lots of options but for my NYC'ers we're hitting up Baked. They have a bite of one of their Uncle Punks or Sweet Corn pizza if it's harvest time and swear it's as good as a NYC slice...and for the price arguably better. For cocktails is back to Judy's Kitchen, over to the new Fisk Bier & Wine or the classic Bar 65 to hang with some of our favorite 'tendies around. Conversation flows over amazing drinks and we hit the bars, likely ending up at Duffy's watching the tail end of a baseball game. They go to sleep regretting their life choices and wondering if Galesburg is actually what they've been looking for all along.
On attractions, I'm an outdoorsy type so we're likely taking a walk through Lake Story, where we'll probably run into my mom and her dog Augie on her routine trash pick-up route. For my golfing buds, we'll probably hit up Bunker for an affordable round of 18. They'll be impressed that I'm only a mile away from a golf course so well maintained. If the Silver Streaks are playing, or it's summer baseball season, I'll invite them to come out and watch a game of Post 285 baseball over at Jimmy Isaacson Field. They'll love the atmosphere of being at a ballpark nestled into a charming neighborhood, where local kids and families come out to enjoy the game. And before they leave to catch their flight in Peoria, they'll ask "Is this heaven?" And I'll say "No it's Galesburg!" If you know you know... 😉
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