A study from researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau and Harvard University says nearly 60% of young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up. Eighty percent live within 100 miles.
This is true for eighth-generation Mackinac Islander Emma Motz.
Born at the Mackinac Island Medical Center in the summer of 1987, Emma lived on the island until graduating high school in 2005. “Growing up here was a completely different lifestyle,” Motz said. “What I loved about the island was the freedom that you get at such a young age, and the sense of community.”
Motz formed some of her closest friendships with other children on the island.
“Our school was very small. When I graduated, I believe there were about 85 students K through 12. There was four kids in my graduating class, and we were together from kindergarten,”
The Mackinac Island Public School is shared by all grades. Students gradually move their way down the hall until they graduate from high school. The children in the community bond over their shared landscape.
“Everybody looked out for everybody. We were friends with the grade below us, friends with the grades above us. Every other year we were with them,” Motz said.
“The friends that I had growing up are still the closest friends I have to this day,” she added.
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Without cars around, the main way of transportation was bike or snowmobile.
“You get your snowmobile license when you’re 12 years old, which gives you a whole new sense of freedom,” Motz said.
Motz was heavily involved in sports. She played soccer, volleyball and track.
“You start playing varsity sports in seventh grade. We’re a family of athletes - I played every sport that was offered to me,” she said.
When the sports seasons ended, she worked alongside many of her classmates at summer jobs on the island.
“We worked all summer until the school year started again and sports started back up,” Motz said.
Their childhood may have been unique compared to most, and Motz said the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
“Throughout elementary and high school, other schools would come visit us on field trips, and they’d be like, ‘Do you have TVs? Do you have video games? Do you even get a cellphone there?’ And to all those questions we’d say, ‘Yeah, we have all of those things.’ We weren’t deprived in that way. I would say everything that we didn’t have that mainland people did have made us stronger. This close-knit community made us all much more personable,” Motz said.
After graduating high school, Motz attended Ferris State University. Life off the island took some getting used to, but it wasn’t a big problem.
“I didn’t struggle going to college. It was a little bit of culture shock, but I didn’t struggle meeting people, or fitting into a classroom whatsoever. We were very well-prepared in our school to move on to the next step. They did an excellent job. I did not feel lost, other than maybe the driving thing,” Motz said.
“I didn’t get my driver’s license till I was 21 years old, or actually drive a car until later in life. But I didn’t need it.”
After graduating from Ferris, she moved to Colorado to work in education, and there she met her husband, also from Michigan. When they started their family, they decided they were ready to move back to the island. They have resided there for the past six years.
Emma works as a property manager for city-owned workforce housing. Her husband works for a local company doing construction restoration on areas all around the island.
“I live on property and I manage 24 townhomes that are year-round island employees and residents like first responders, school teachers, bank, post office, construction workers,” Motz said.
The housing crisis experienced by many citizens in Northern Michigan pervades Mackinac Island also.
“There’s so many jobs but not enough places for people to live affordably,” Motz said.
The city of Mackinac Island funded the townhomes they live in to create an affordable community that supports the island.
“We do have a lot of schoolkids that live on this property. We have a small suburb where the kids can just play outside all day - we’re on gravel roads, and there’s hardly any tourist traffic up here,” Motz said.
The upcoming Lilac Festival is an event Motz looks forward to every year.
“The local floats with everyone walking through streets, that’s really fun to see. The lilac queen and wildlife princess comes straight from our school, and you know them personally, and that’s always fun to see,” she said.
Another savored event on the island is the Christmas Bazaar. Residents come together to earn money for local churches.
“There’s a silent auction, a big primary dinner, crafts that are sold, Santa Claus comes - it’s a really fun event,” Motz said.
After the Christmas season, residents of the island bring their Christmas trees down to the beach and for an upcycle event unique to Mackinac Island.
“The locals will go and measure the ice, and if it’s thick enough, they stick a tree where they measured, and they go on and on and on until there’s a safe path of trees that leads us right into St Ignace so that we crossed the ice bridge back and forth as a way to get to the mainland,” explained Motz.
“It just changes everything because you’re not living off of a boat schedule. You can get to other restaurants, friends visit, you can pick people up, and they’re not paying the boat fare to come over. It’s a nice break from the cabin fever that may set it in the middle of winter,” Motz said.
Overall, her favorite time of year is the fall, when a sense of relief sweeps the island as the busy summer season comes to a close.
“We wouldn’t succeed without summer, and without these tourists coming and spending money on the island. But it is really nice seeing the fog and the streets start to get quiet. Fall is really just a beautiful time. We sometimes are known to get the Indian summer, where it’s fall, but all of a sudden, it was super warm. That’s always a nice feeling. But I’d say fall would have to be the best season for me with the feeling of you know a sense of like, closure to another successful year,” Motz said.
Growing up and growing old on the island may be a different experience than most, but Motz is adamant anyone can make life on the island possible.
“A lot of people love to say that you have to be rich to live here. I don’t think that that’s a fair statement. There’s a huge population of middle-class hard-working good people that live here. It may be expensive to get here. But once you’re here, it’s a pretty affordable lifestyle,” Motz said.
“You have to be willing to conform a little bit to the weather. You never know what the winter is going to bring; you never know what summer is going to bring. You just have to be open to those type of things,” Motz said.
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