“Depending on how you look at things, it was either pure chance or divine intervention,” Chet Janik laughed as he described how he was able to leave Communist Poland as a young boy and immigrate to Cedar, Michigan. “Without the town supporting my great uncle, and without the kindness of the consular official, I never would have grown up here.” Reflecting on his life in the United States and his career as he winds down his time as Leelanau County’s longest serving administrator, Chet narrates the journey with vivid details.