After writing why I enjoyed moving away from Kansas a few days ago, I figured I would follow it up with why I enjoyed living there.
A stepping stone. It was a good place to start our professional lives. Out of college, we agreed to move to the first place that gave either of us a decent paying job. As it turns out, it was Wichita, Kansas. The major downside from the get go was the distance from home. The furthest we had lived from home was in college and it was only a three hour drive. To go from that to practically four states away was rough to start with, but it was part of growing up. Wichita is big enough to get a big city feel, but still small enough where you didn't have to worry about a ton of traffic or too much urban sprawl.
Broader horizons. We saw part of the country that we would not have ever seen. And who would blame us? Who wants to go on a vacation to see Kansas or Missouri when you have no family or friends to visit? Because we lived down there, we visited Colorado to see my brother-in-law, took several trips to southwestern Missouri for float trips, hell Andrea went down to Oklahoma to go wedding dress shopping. We got to see Texas first hand when we went down there for a birthday weekend to see the Red Wings play the Stars. Nebraska was a stopping point for a weekend five years ago when I was playing vintage base ball (yes, it's two words when you play old school style). So the southern mid-west was explored and would have remained just some crazy right wing states that we never went to if we never lived in Kansas. Were they the greatest trips and vacations? Not really. They were mostly for a weekend and there was purpose to them, it was not to just go and relax. But we got to do these trips with friends and that is what counts.
Our friends. Wherever you go, you are always going to make friends. When you leave, you must obviously leave these friends behind. Sometimes, these friends keep in contact for a few years only to start drifting away to the recesses of your memories and stories. Other times, they stick with you for the rest of your life. I hope that our friends stick with us. I know that it is a two way street with keeping in contact, and it is hard sometimes to really go that extra mile which is why things like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are so helpful these days. If we need a reason to go back to Kansas, that would be the only one, friends. There is no point in visiting if you can't see the people that made the state worthwhile. The nice thing about moving up to Minnesota, is that we already have some friends from high school that are here. It's good to have that little base just in case it takes a while to settle in at work and find people that are worth hanging out with (that sounds snooty and pretentious but I'm sticking with it).
You know, I tried to balance the love and the hate out by coming up with equal numbers, but I can only think of three reasons why I enjoyed our time in Kansas. I came up with four hates, although two of the four kind of go hand in hand. But, such is life.
And besides, I don't live there anymore so I don't have to worry about it.
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