A Fresh Start and Rekindling a Love for Local in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Two weeks before my boyfriend and I made the move from South Bend to Fort Wayne we were sitting around our best friend’s backyard fire pit, sipping on beer gone tepid in the early-summer heat wave.

Someone asked us how we were doing and, after trading a glance of silent approval, we dropped the news that we would be selling our house and moving nearly two hours southeast of the place that’d been home for seven years.

“Wow, okay…”

“That’s so exciting!”

“When are you guys leaving?”

"What are you going to be doing in Fort Wayne?"

Our friends and family had a lot of questions.

The short answer is we left because it was an opportunity to press a giant reset button on our lives.

If you don’t know me yet, you wouldn’t know that last summer I got sick. Like, life-threateningly sick.
The kind of sick most people won’t experience in their lifetimes.

After something like that, a person changes. I changed.

Everything changed.

But other things shifted, too.
What was important to me two years ago is not that important now.
What matters to me now is being present, being fulfilled.

I’m no longer afraid of the things I used to be; I’ve beaten one of life’s most challenging levels, and I got a 1-Up token.
So I started a food-stagram called A Blonde Who Feasts, and I founded Rum Blonde Studio.

I’m making mistakes. I’m failing harder. I’m growing and adapting.
All that, and I’m so much braver and more resilient than I ever thought I could be.

A lot of things are different now, but I’m still me.
I still have my characteristic sarcasm and dry sense of humor, my parents’ hand-me-down Chicago accent, and the skill set I’ve cultivated from more than a decade in digital marketing and media.
And I still have a passion for supporting local, discovering hidden gems and special spaces along the way.

An interior view of the Honey Plant, a houseplant and garden store located in the heart of the historic Wells Corridor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Photo by Manda Jacobson, 2024.

Now we're here in Fort Wayne, living in the heart of the city. The ‘02, as the locals would say.

This city is flourishing, and the people here have so much creativity, happiness and passion to share.
The most exciting thing about Fort Wayne is it's a community that supports itself from within, and is thriving because of it.

Not to mention it has quickly tickled my fancy for discovering new local businesses and restaurants.

In my very short time here, I’ve nearly become a regular at places like the Honey Plant – a local botany shop with literally anything you'd ever need to grow your ideal houseplant family, Ophelia’s – arguably the best brunch spot in town; their lattes are perfection – and the Dash-In, a welcoming cafe with added perks like all-day brekkie, a primo coffee bar and a badass beer selection.

I’ve also established that my current fav spots to ingest rocket fuel (i.e. caffeinated bevvies) and get work done are, in no particular order: Firefly Coffeehouse, Brooklyn Pints Microcreamery, the second floor of Electric Works, and Draft Taproom and Coffee.

But today I sit at my kitchen table typing away, simply eager to start helping Fort Wayne's nonprofit cultural organizations achieve their goals – this time with a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm.

As I always say, life does life things.
Only this time, it’s brought me to a place I’m proud to call home.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds