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Category: A Midwest Mindset

I went home last weekend to hang out with my folks and my brother. I was goofing around the house waiting for dinner to happen. I began to rummage around the kitchen for something to tide me over, but then stopped. I felt the urge to ask my parents if I could have a snack before dinner. I had to stop and remind myself of a few things. I’m 22 years old. I know I’m hungry. Dinner wasn’t for another 30 minutes. If I wanted to eat, I should eat.

I’ve talked about this before, but there’s something about being back home that makes me feel like a little kid no matter how old I get. I regress back to my role as a dependent child waiting for my parents to tell me what to do next.

Up in Emporia, I’m my own boss. I decide when to eat, when to sleep, and when to go hang out with my friends. Back home I feel like I should check in with my parents before making any big decision.

It’s not a matter of being considerate. I think if you are sharing a roof with somebody you should keep them up to date with your comings and goings. For me it’s about getting permission to do the simple things I do on my own all the time.

And it isn’t brought on by my folks – they are fully capable of treating me like a full-fledged adult. I’m the one that seems to have problems thinking of myself as a grownup when I go back home.

But maybe it’s not all bad. The point of going home, and getting away from Emporia, is to relax and take my mind off the stress of school. It’s kind of nice to go home and not take any of my worries with me and let my parents tell what to do again. It’s a nice change of pace when you can give up the responsibility of making every little decision.

The other thing I’m starting to realize is that I have a strange desire to prove myself to my parents. Does that happen to anyone else? Maybe it’s because I know how important being in college is to them. They didn’t get their college degrees until much later in life, so I’ll be the first in the family to get one right after high school.

It’s costing us a pretty penny to put me through school, so whenever I come home I feel compelled to prove to them, (and to myself I think) that it’s worth all the money. I tend to do that through elaborate, very abstract conversations about current happenings in the news or in society.

Maybe I’m over-analyzing the situation. Back in high school I would talk to my folks for hours about anything under the sun, from politics to history to art. And I didn’t think much of it. But now that I’m a full time student, I guess I feel more pressure to prove my worth?

It doesn’t really matter I guess, because I love all the conversations I get to have with my family. Most of the students I know in Emporia hate talking about school when off the clock, so getting able to really discuss the material I’m learning is not a common experience for me.

I know my parents are proud of me, and would be proud of me no matter if I were in college or not. I think I’m really just more interested in proving my progress to myself in an attempt to show that I’m really growing up, and I’m not the same person I was when I lived at home.

Midwest Mindset: When Did I Grow Up?

Harrison George

I can’t believe I’m 22.

While most kids dream about the day they finally turn 21, I was always much more interested in 22. That represented the true age of adulthood. I guess it’s because all the birthdays before that carry so much symbolism; 16, 18, 21.

But after 22 birthdays just become a thing- an amorphous semi-holiday that carries no concrete benefits. If anything, they become despised as they only serve as a reminder of how old we are getting.

So now that I’m 22, what comes next? I’m an adult now, by all legal and social standards. (The only thing I can’t do at this age is rent a car, but I don’t think that will hold me back that much.)

I certainly don’t feel like an adult. In a lot of ways I still feel exactly how I did at 16, or 18, or 21. I’ve certainly learned a lot since then, both in terms of book smarts and life experience. But personality-wise, I feel like the same person I was as a kid. I guess that’s what personality is- those characteristics that stay with you your whole life regardless of age or education.

I should point out this analysis of age was not brought on by a recent birthday; my birthday is in September. So I’ve been 22 for over five months.

The reason I bring it up now is because it’s just now dawning on me what it means to be an adult. It’s the age-old difference between knowing something and realizing it. I know I’m 22, but sometimes things happen that really make me realize I’m a “grownup.”

Two events happened to me recently. First I stumbled upon an amazing site that really conveys my experience in dealing with adulthood. The site is titled “OMG I’m the Adult”, which perfectly sums up how we all feel when we have those grand moments of realization. The site is a collection of user-submitted stories in the vein of Fmylife but to the theme of maturity.

Some are casual observations about minor events-being called “Sir” or Ma’am” by strangers, while others are downright intense.
One of my favorites: “Six Word Memoir. Sign on the dotted line. I became my mother’s legal guardian.”

You can read more of the stories at http://omgimtheadult.wordpress.com. The site isn’t as updated as often as I’d like, but it’s great to know others have experienced the surreal transition that occurs between childhood and adulthood.

Secondly, a few weeks I updated my Facebook with the following status: “I am __ years old and still can’t ___.” I was inspired to do so after coming to the depressing conclusion that I was 22 years old and still didn’t know how to properly spell the word definitely. For whatever reason, I never took the time to learn to spell it correctly, and always had to spell check it. It’s little things like that which keep me from seeing myself as an adult. “I can’t be a grown up,” I tell myself, “I don’t know how to spell definitely. Shouldn’t a grownup be able to do that?”

Anyway, the response I got was enormous- 27 people submitted their own version. The answers were astounding, ranging from the absurd (“I am 22 years old and still can’t floss.”) to the heartfelt (“I am 22 years old and I still can’t approach a stranger.”) (By the way not everyone was 22 years old, that’s just a weird coincidence.)

We all have these arbitrary conditions that we think have to be met before we can be full fledged adults. Maybe it’s owning a house, or having a kid. Or it’s being able to parallel park. Or learn to swim. Or like the taste of coffee.

I guess I drew some solace in hearing that other people were worried about growing up too. The feeling I got was no one feels ready to be a grownup; it just happens whether we like it or not.

My parents probably felt the same way I do now. One day you’re a kid goofing around with your friends, the next you are paying bills, working a job, and starting a family.

Midwest Mindset Feb. 25, 2010 – “Pilgrims in an unholy land”

“We are pilgrims in an unholy land.”

The above quote is from one of my favorite movies, “Indiana Jones.” In it, Harrison Ford is referring to his presence in Nazi Germany during WWII. While I’ve never been in a situation that extreme, I think of this quote when I find myself outside of the Midwest region I know so well. I think the quote says something about people’s mentality; we like to think we are the normal ones, and the rest of the world is crazy, or backwards, or weird.

As a kid I was under the belief that people were people, no matter where you went. When I traveled through Europe in high school I learned how wrong I was. People are very different. Looking back, it’s childish to think that everyone is like you simply because that’s all you know. Cultures create personalities, so with different cultures come different types of people.

I remember my first night in Italy when we were eating at a café and I asked the waiter for refill on my soda. He looked at me like I had pasta coming out of my ears. Apparently in some parts of Europe there are no refills – you drink what you get, then you’re done. As a child raised in a soda-decadent culture, that baffled me. That was my first experience in crossing cultures.

It’s important to note when I say people are different, I don’t mean inherently or morally, merely superficially. Just because the waiter didn’t like refills didn’t make him a bad person, or me one for loving refills. I’m simply talking about those tiny differences that are the result of cultural upbringing; the ones we all take for granted as being universally apparent. Just wanted to make that point.

The older I got, the easier it became to see cultural differences. The more I traveled the U.S., and the more stories I heard from friends and family, the more I learned about the differences within regions.

I remember my dad telling me about his first time in Boston. He stood in line for 10 minutes at a coffee shop before realizing he wasn’t moving. People were merely walking right in front of him, slowly pushing their way to the counter to be served. To a Midwesterner like my dad, it seemed chaotic, but he was assured by a Bostonian that there was a method to the madness. Apparently something as simple as waiting in line is up for cultural interpretation. They don’t even call it waiting in line there – it’s waiting on line!

I asked a few of my friends about their experiences since moving from the Midwest to other regions. When they tell people they were from Kansas they got one of two responses; either a “Wizard of Oz” reference, or an apology: “You’re from Kansas? I bet that sucked.”

The third most common response seemed to be, “Where is Kansas?”

My friend Sarah said, “I’ve found that many Seattleites don’t really know where Kansas is. It’s mostly just “over there” somewhere. Also, telling them I had to drive 30 miles to go to a mall or a movie theater is mind boggling.”

Mainly what I’ve heard from my friends is that people outside of the Midwest are much ruder than we are. We have all heard this stereotype before, but I was surprised at how often it popped up in people’s comments.

My friend Larry talked about his first few days in D.C.: “I remember my first time in Georgetown, walking from the metro stop I noticed that even if you said “hello” right to someone’s face, they would completely ignore you. That was a first for me. I counted 30 people on that walk. Not one of them seemed to notice I was there.”

Blog: Midwest Mindset, Feb. 4, 2010

Kansas Day!

Last week Kansas celebrated its birthday for the 149^th time. For the 3^rd year in a row I helped throw a Kansas Day celebration in Emporia. It’s full of all things Kansas- Wheat State Pizza, Wheat Beer, and some good old 70’s rock, courtesy of Kansas. This year we had an unexpected treat- John Brown stopped by to say hello!

Anyway, in honor of our wonderful state’s birthday, I’ve decided to compile a Top 10 List of Kansas-Inspired Historical and Cultural Impacts.

William Allen White- Not just a Kansas native but an Emporian at that, WAW was a celebrated journalist and civil rights activist. As a newspaper employee I like to think of him as a Patron Saint of sorts.
Wizard of Oz- No Kansas list would be complete without mentioning that famous film that made every non-Kansan ask you, “Where’s Toto? LOL” Kansas will always be synonymous with Dorothy, her dog, and her group of rag-tag friends.
Flying Spaghetti Monster- Though the origin of the FSM stems from Oregon State, the motives were 100% Kansan. The creature was created in response to the Kansas Board of Education’s vote to include Intelligent Design in public school’s science curriculum. The creature, which looks like a squid/pasta hybrid, is a fantastic farce of the ongoing religious quagmire in Kansas schools, and reminds America we can still laugh at ourselves.
Air Capital- Wichita has been home to the Boeing Company, Cessna, Raytheon and Bombardier Aerospace’s Learjet division. At one point Wichita supplied two-thirds of the world’s commercial airliners. I’m throwing this in just for my dad. He worked in the Wichita Airline business for over 27 years, and is absolutely nuts about planes. Over that time he met both John Travolta and Harrison Ford when they flew into Wichita while flying their private jets. I’m sure my dad was real lame and only talked to them about plane stuff, like if their wings were stable and if their cabin pressure was adequate or something like that.
Pizza Hut, Braum’s, and White Castle- 3 of the country’s biggest chains started in Kansas: 2 of them in Wichita and 1 in Emporia. Without these businesses, America would have been just a little bit less fat.
BTK- Not all these impacts are good. In the 70’s, Dennis Rader, AKA the BTK killer, had the country and Kansas in a state of terror with his ghastly murders and his creepy notes. He was finally caught in 2005 and once his identity was revealed, my hometown of Wichita was filled with eerie stories of run-ins with the killer. “I swear to god that guy came to my house last year to take my dog to the pound.” Exclaimed one of kids in my school.
Brown Vs. Board- The landmark case that ended “de jure” racial segregation in public schools around the country. Did you know this case did not just involve the families of the Topeka area, the Browns included? It was actually the conglomeration of a multi-state effort to end school segregation- there were over 200 plaintiffs all together. I had old classmate in one of my classes last year who actually knows the Brown family in Topeka and is still in regular contact with them. He says they are very normal folks. I can’t imagine living a normal life after having such a huge impact on the country and the legal system.
Celebrities!!- We’ve got Fatty Arbuckle, Paul Rudd, Dennis Hopper, Bill Kurtis, Don Johnson, Annette Bening, Elvira, and of course, Kirstie Alley. My sister once met Kirstie Alley in a coffee shop in Wichita and helped her carry drinks across the street. Turns out there was a Scientology meeting in the church nearby and Kirstie was giving the sermon that day. No joke.
Prairie Reserve- Alright indulge me as I eco-nerd out here for a second. The prairie is the most endangered of all the world’s biomes, and the biggest swath of it left is right here in Kansas, near Strong City. Prairie used to cover over 8 states, but now 98% of it has been farmed or cattle-fed into extinction. Now the rest resides on federally protected land, ensuring that future generations can still enjoy the intense and exotic beauty of the prairie.
John Brown- Known as the man who killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights, (and also as the father of modern-day terrorism) big beardy Brown started a revolt that directly kicked off the Civil War. Before that he was making the news for passing out guns throughout Bleeding Kansas to combat the pro-slavery movement. Impressive as his life might have been, I think most of us know him simply as the dude on the cover of that Kansas album (see above picture)

As with most top 10 lists, I can never put everything on here I wanted to. What do you think should have made the list?

fitzgerald auto mall
music notes facebook
bronchitis symptoms
defamation of character
denver nuggets schedule

Blog: Midwest Mindset: Living with two homes

Sorry it’s been so long since I last updated. I would like to blame it on the fact that we only had school for half the months of November, December, and January, but the truth is I got too preoccupied with school to keep up my posting duties. But now that we are back in the swing of things with school, I think I will have this under control.

Breaks are always a strange time for me because they are a reminder that I technically have two homes. Since I started college, each consecutive break feels more bizarre as I try to readjust to life under my parent’s roof.

Luckily I have a good relationship with my parents, so there’s never any tension. (They seem completely content with the fact that I am going to graduate with a remarkably unmarketable degree) It’s more a matter of remembering to take them into consideration before doing things. I have a problem remembering to wait till official “dinner time” before eating. I’m used to being on my own: when I get hungry in Emporia, I eat. It’s that simple. But at home, I have to take others into consideration.

But, that being said, there are lots of advantages to being home with the parents. Free rent, free food as far as the eye can see, and luxuries like satellite television and a dishwasher.

Can we talk about the food for a minute? Compared to my fridge in Emporia, my parent’s place is like living in Buffet City. I don’t realize how long I’ve been living off Ramen and Pb and J’s till I am reminded what real food is like. The way I eat at home, my poor parents probably think I’m starving myself while I’m away.

Just like readjusting to my parents can be a task, so is trying to reconnect with old friends from high school. I stay in touch with as many as I can through the wonders of Facebook and whatnot, but it’s still sometimes strange hanging out with someone you haven’t been “real” friends with in over 3 years. It sounds cliché, but I guess it’s a vital part of growing up – you make new friends and your old ones move to the peripheral. Back in high school it was easy to be friends with anyone- you were all stuck in the same building for eight hours a day. Now, when you have to go out of your way to make time to see them, you realize which relationships are built on strong foundations and which were made simply because you were both in PE the same period.

The most surprising thing about breaks is how quickly I begin to miss Emporia. For all the complaining I’ve done in the past about how slow and small Emporia might seem, it’s funny that I start to miss it so quickly. I find myself missing the closeness of the town, and how I can walk anywhere I need to go within 5 minutes. It’s definitely not like that in Wichita; everything’s a 20 min drive with heavy traffic. It makes me realize Emporia has become just as much a home to me as Wichita. It’s amazing a city I’ve only known for four years can have such a strong impact on me.

But, now that I’m back in Emporia I feel a desire to get back home and relax with my family. Grass is always greener I suppose. The transition from holiday break to the new semester is always a tough one – I usually need a few days in Emporia to reboot and get ready for the hectic schedule to come.

I guess that’s the goal of the school break- it’s just something to keep me motivated until it arrives. And then once it arrives I realize I don’t really want to break from what I was doing. (And it only took me 4 years of college to figure this out haha)

What about you guys? What have your experiences been going back home for breaks? And has the experience changed the longer you’ve been in school?

A Midwest Mindset: “Midwesterners Gone Wild”

George

It has come to my attention that Midwesterners don’t know how to behave themselves in certain situations. We always complain that no one famous comes to Kansas, but every time they do I see people acting foolish, trashy, or down right disrespectful. It’s as if we get so excited to have someone here to entertain us we forget all about our sense of decency and manners. There have been a few instances in the last few months that have really made me scratch my head.

David Cross came to Midland Theater in Kansas City last month to do standup. We were less than 30 minutes into the show when the performer made an all too familiar mistake: he commented on how excited he was to be in Kansas City, Kan. Well, you can probably guess what happened next – something that I’ve seen happen on numerous occasions. The audience huffed and guffawed and replied in unison: “This isn’t Kansas it’s Missouri!”

And I let out a sigh, disappointed that we couldn’t go more than one evening without bringing up this issue. Like an inside joke that spans two states, we continue to debate the boundaries of this specific city for reasons beyond my comprehension. While it is apparently endlessly fascinating for those living in Kansas and Missouri, it holds little interest to those just traveling through.

For most performers, knowing where Kansas ends and Missouri begins ranks in importance somewhere between knowing the state bird of Delaware and the current superintendent of their old high school. Just because it’s fun for us to talk about it does not mean we should bring it up in public. I have issues with the whole thing – why don’t we just take that land from Missouri or let them rename that section “Missouri City”? Although it’s a trifling matter, I find it annoying that we can’t even name our cities properly. Anyway, the end result is that performers walk away believing Midwesterners are quaint, simple folk, who enjoy spending their time squabbling over slight details.

Quaint isn’t that bad though. I could live with quaint. I want to fight the ideas that we are trashy slobs. And it’s not going well. In August, the theater I work for in Emporia held a country music concert, bringing in two semi-well known musicians to perform. Now let me say right off the bat that this theater is a piece of history, recently restored and reopened. Built during the 1930s, it inspires ideas of the good old days when “going out” was actually an occasion, worthy of getting dressed up and putting on your best manners. Well it’s obvious that society does not hold to that idea much these days.

I was thoroughly grossed out by the actions of some of the audience members that night. It started simply enough – I was surprised at how much beer was being sold. There was an ample bar available, full of a varied selection of liquors. But the audience wanted none of that: Coors and Coors Lights were selling like hotcakes. I personally delivered two buckets of Coors (16 in each) to a table of 3, before the show even started. That’s fine, I thought, to each their own.

The real trouble started around 9 p.m., 30 minutes into the show. I was on trash duty, checking the men’s rooms, when I saw it. Well, I smelled it first; the overpowering stench of puke, booze and dinner. Someone had thrown up in a urinal.

Viewing the damage, I could tell two things immediately; 1. This man was very drunk. 2. He ate some kind of fish and potatoes combo for dinner. (OK, let’s talk about this guy: who shows up to a concert at a NATIONALLY REGISTERED HISTORIC SITE, gets drunk off of Coors by 9 p.m., and pukes in a urinal?).

I cleaned up the mess, and reentered the concert, silently scouring the audience for the culprit. It was like one of those murder mystery dinners – the guilty person is there, but he’s blended in with the rest of the crowd. I went about my duties for another hour or so until my boss pulled me aside.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “But there’s been another accident.” She showed me on the carpet near the lobby where the pile was still steaming. “We don’t know who did it, or if it was the same guy as before.” But I knew. I recognized that stingy smell of potatoes and beer. He had struck again.

Cleaning up puke on carpet is never easy, especially when it’s dark and loud and very smelly. I swept up as much as I could and was on my way to get the mop when I ran into my coworker, a fellow janitor.

“I’m sorry man, I can’t believe he threw up again.” He said, with a slight smile on his face. “It’s okay, I got it cleaned up.” I replied. His smile grew wider, and we both realized he knew something I didn’t. Something in his grin told me I should probably check the men’s room again. Before I even reached the urinal I could tell by the stench that the Puker had returned to the scene of the crime. While I was busy cleaning up his second mess, he had ventured back into the bathroom, puked on the SAME urinal, and left. “How much fish does he have left in him?” I wondered as I retrieved my bucket and gloves for the third time that night.

Luckily, this story has a happy ending. As I was cleaning the bathroom the Puker was identified by one of the security guards and was escorted out of the theater. It turns out he didn’t even bother cleaning off his shirt the last time around, so it was kind of a dead give away. I entered the lobby just in time to see him and his rather embarrassed girlfriend being led out the door.

You think I’m being too harsh on my fellow Midwesterners. Maybe I am. I just want the rest of the country to start taking us more seriously, and for musicians and performers to think we are worth their time when out touring. But if we keep acting like this, it makes it hard for me to plead my case. I’m not saying we have to act fancier or smarter than we really are. I know that we can be respectable; we just don’t always go to the trouble. So the next time you go out just remember you aren’t just representing yourself, you’re representing your whole region. And please, stay away from the fish and potato dinner.

A Midwest Mindset: Why Emporia?

George

A few friends and I were sitting around last Thursday when my blog got brought up in conversation. My friend Ashton said she was interested to keep reading because she wanted to know “how I was going to make Emporia sound good” every week. Before I could answer, my friend Caelee spoke up: “It’s not about making Emporia sound good – it’s what’s good about Emporia.”

I couldn’t say it better myself. The purpose of this blog is not to convince people how great Emporia is. It’s a story about how I’ve grown to love this town for what it is. And in the process I’ve learned to love Kansas and the Midwest.

To understand how noteworthy this is you first need to understand how opposed to Emporia I was. As a senior in high school, I was convinced that KU was the only college for me. (My original dream of attending the Kansas City Art Institute was quickly shot down when I realized you needed a portfolio of work to be accepted, not just ambition and a can-do attitude.)

I had it all sorted out: a double major in Environmental Policy and Filmmaking, living in a hip apartment close to the adventures of Mass Street with live music every weekend. But one little thing got in the way: tuition. Long story shorter, I wound up at Emporia State.

To call ESU my safety school would be a gross exaggeration. I had never been to Emporia before, but I chose to let other people decide for me that the city was no fun and the school was underwhelming. From all that I had heard, Emporia would not be supplying me with the grand collegiate experience I felt I deserved. My first year was a collage of watching movies in my dorm room and frequent weekends back home to Wichita to hang out with my family.

Before the start of my sophomore year, I decided I had to face the facts – I was going to be at Emporia State for the next 3 years, so I better get used to it. Once you accept your situation, it makes it easier to make the most of it. I began exploring the town, going out of my way to meet new people and get involved on campus. I started a few clubs, joined a few others, and within months felt connected to my campus. All it took was a sense of investment. Had I not gotten involved I would have just been a student, walking to class and back everyday.

Now I’m a member of a community, of something bigger than just myself. My senior year is flying by and now I’m not ready to leave behind this community I’ve helped build here in Emporia. Emporia might not have changed a whole lot since I still got here, but my views of it certainly have. I now understand the idea of “small town values.” I always considered that political rhetoric used to stroke the egos of the middle class. But there is a feeling found in smaller towns like Emporia and throughout the Midwest that you don’t find everywhere. There’s a unique type of openness and personality that draws you in.

So I’m not here to convince you of anything. I just want to tell my story about a how I have stopped letting other people tell me what’s cool and instead take the time to find out for myself. It’s a lesson you can carry through a lot of situations in life: don’t judge a place (or a person) by an outer appearance. Get to know it personally and you might realize it’s got a lot more going for it than you first thought.

I’ll end today with a song. A friend of mine had spent some time in Minnesota and discovered a local rap group called Atmosphere. I was a little weary of Minnesotan rap, but I gave it a shot. Their song, “Shhh,” was the start of my interest in studying life in the Midwest. Up until this song I never thought to differentiate life in the middle of the country from life anywhere else. He touches on a lot of the reasons why I’m so happy living where I am, and you don’t hear that kind of stuff in mainstream music very often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn6iU_c2cM0&feature=related

Check out the lyrics on the side to understand what I mean.

Some of my favorite lines-

“So if the people laugh and giggle when you tell em where you live
Say shhh, say shhh
And if you know this is where you wanna raise your kids
Say shhh, say shhh
If you’re from the Midwest and it doesn’t matter where
Say shhh, say shhh”

It feels like the Midwest feels embarrassed by itself when compared to other regions of America. We have a lot to proud of – we just need to remind ourselves of that every once in a while.

A Midwest Mindset: A brief introduction

Harrison George

My name is Harrison George and I have a confession to make. I like Emporia. A lot. I know it’s not popular to say such things: Emporia has been a punching bag for college towns for the last few decades. Most of Kansas sees Emporia as a glorified gas station between Kansas City and Wichita. That’s definitely how I saw it before I came here. I predicted I would be just another commuter student, packing up every weekend for a more exciting town.

But over the last four years I have learned to view Emporia in a better light. I stopped focusing on what Emporia didn’t have and started noticing what it did. And now, my last year here, I’ve become a full fledged advocate for Emporia. And that brings us about up to speed I think. I’ve started my last year at college and I’m already wondering what life will be like living outside the city limits. I’ve taken life in Emporia for granted these last few years, without even knowing it. And now that it’s almost over, I’ve started taking it more seriously.

I recently had the pleasure of traveling across the country with one of my best friends. The road trip began in Seattle, WA, where my sister lives. My friend and I spent 6 days driving back to Kansas through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska. We explored the country, took in the sights, and ate at a few amazing roadside diners. It seems every time I travel to new places I wind up discovering more about where I’m from than where I am.

After more than a week and a half away from my home, I realized how much I missed the comfort of familiarity. New places are great, but after it was over nothing sounded better than my own bed in my apartment.

When I returned to Emporia and Kelsey Ryan came to me about writing a blog for The Bulletin’s Web site, I knew exactly what I would write about – Life in Emporia. Life in Kansas. Life in the Midwest.

They always say write what you know, and boy do I know about life in the Midwest. It’s more than just where I was born in raised, it shaped me into the person I am today. I am a man of the plains. I have the ideals and the mindsets of a true Midwesterner, and I couldn’t be prouder.

So I invite you to join me as I travel through my last year in Kansas and I try to experience everything that is truly unique to the Midwest. It might not be full of big city adventure, celebrity run-ins, or constant partying, but that’s alright with me. This is my home.