A little about me

I’m a midwest girl at heart and let me tell you that Minnesota nice is a real thing.

I grew up as an awkward little girl in the suburbs in Minnesota. It was a safe place. People would always help others out, they would greet you even if they didn’t know you and most importantly, they could make eye contact with you and smile instead of staring at the ground pretending that another human isn’t next to them.

In my college years, I lived in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN. Things were arguably different but for the most part, Minnesota nice was alive and well. As a young lady, my parents sent me off to college with pepper spray in hand. At that point, I was a bit warier of my fellow Minnesotans.

Currently

I’m still a midwesterner, living in South Dakota and I’ll always be Minnesota nice at heart. I’m a wife to an amazing husband, mother of a terrifically terrifying teenager and we have two fur babies, Rumple and Rosie.

We really don’t worry about much here in general but I do find that it is hard to find and make friends here. It’s not as open as Minnesota and I always wonder why. It’s proabably because I’m still awkward.

This past weekend

We packed up the family and headed to Minnesota to cram the most fun into the smallest amount of time. This was an impressive feat that only my husband could have come up with.

Here’s the rundown, Dessa Performance with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra. We found all the good breweries that were kid friendly and met up with friends from South Dakota. We played a vicious game of mini-golf at the Can Can Wonderland and finished off the night with women’s Roller Derby competition.

And all of that was crammed into just two days. I mentioned that amazing husband of mine.

Expectations versus reality

Bringing my daughter into Minneapolis was a rude experience. I know that time changes everything but I didn’t expect to see such a disconnect from my fellow Minnesotans.  The smiles were no longer there, headphones filled ears so that their words would never reach ours, and lastly, eye contact was a thing of the past.

It was if my fellow Minnesotan nice crew was now more like the New York crew.

So while we had a blast this weekend I do have to say I was a bit let down by the people whos Minnesota nice was now Minnesotan ice.

Perhaps the saying “you can never go home”- Thomas Wolfe, is true. Your memories of home are just that. And the actualities of what has changed will never match your old experiences.

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photo by: HaizhanZheng

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