Oh, Give Me A Home...

Up until a few years ago and discounting my first few months of existence, I'd lived in Michigan all my life. I grew up thinking that Dearborn Heights, having roughly 60,000 people or so, was small (especially compared to the nearby city of Detroit, which still has hundreds of thousands of people despite all those who choose crime or auto-making as a career).

Then my dad loses his job, and after 5-6 months of job-seeking, we wind up here in south-central Kansas.

Kansas. The geographic center of the continental United States. Home of wind farms, farmland, tornadoes, Jayhawks, Wildcats, and that lovely smell that cows give off when they're driven through town. The same smell that makes you wonder if Pepe le Pew decided to take an overseas vacation.

It's different here, and I'm not just talking about the weather. There's around 6,500 people here in town at last check, and at times you start to feel like everyone here knows everyone here. You have people waving at you from their cars, greeting you as you walk past them on the sidewalks, inquiring as to how you're doing, and generally being right friendly. Even to complete strangers. If you tried that in the more populated areas of the country, the reaction you're likely to get is: "Um...yeah. Great. Could you leave me alone now?", or worse, you'd get a recommendation to the police department.

I'm of mixed opinions regarding my current home. On the one hand, I was able to get a job here and work on getting rid of the student loans that I've accumulated. I can easily walk to work (and to almost everywhere else I need to go, such as Pizza Hut ^_^ ), and learning how to drive has become much less of a priority. My work doesn't pay much compared to others, but then I'd never know what to do with a $2K paycheck anyway. We don't get much snow here, which means a lot less shoveling (although that ice storm a few years ago was pretty nasty).

On the other hand, I miss everyone I knew back home. Religious associates, friends, former classmates (note that the last two weren't lumped together, for the most part), family (especially my grandma, who is in her late 90s and doesn't get out of the house much nowadays). I miss being able to play Star Wars Miniatures against my older brother (and subsequently losing). And, as those who know me can testify, I'm leery of anything in springtime weather that resembles a funnel (but we won't go into that right now).

But I'm here, for better or for worse, until death do I part, for as long as I live, to honor, cherish, and deeply respect...whoops, wrong terminology. Excuse me a second.

...

...Okay, here I go. I'm here, in Kansas, in a city surrounded by farmland where the buffalo once roamed, and where deer and antelope play, breed, and jump headlong into highway traffic. I may as well make the most of it until I can get my loans paid off and until my obligations to my parents are complete, at the very least.

...So, I guess it's only fair that I play the part of a typical Kansas resident, someone who really knows what they're doing and doesn't mind it at all.

Mooooo.