11-06-2025
“I could never live somewhere beautiful. I wouldn’t want to lose my appreciation of it. I think the scenery would become normal eventually, and I don’t want that to happen.” - Most Midwesterners (at least once).
This is a sentiment expressed by many a Midwesterner while vacationing to the mountains or the ocean. The idea is essentially that we in the Midwest need to be surrounded by flat fields of corn, strip malls, and suburbs to appreciate a snow-capped mountain or a sunset over the ocean. Our environment needs to be boring almost all the time to maximize our appreciation for a different environment some of the time.
I get it. It’s a sentiment that I, too, have expressed. I’ve even questioned people living “somewhere beautiful” about the idea while I was living in Wyoming. Their responses were varied, as people’s thoughts tend to be.
After living in several places in both the Midwest and the mountains, I’ve come to a conclusion: Midwesterners see beauty in nature all the time, and they never lose their sense of wonder.
My mom, without fail, will take a picture of any sunset that displays a hint of red, pink, or orange. Most people I know are always excited too see a monarch perched upon a summer wildflower. My grandparents will reliably remark on the colors of fall leaves, and will mention the shortening of the days as summer becomes fall becomes winter. The first snow always brings excitement, and kids will go outside to make the most of it, regardless of the amount on the ground. The sight of tulips in April is always a welcome sign of winter’s end, and the more ecologically-inclined of us will look for the same ephemerals blooming every spring. A full moon dominating the night sky is always a sight to behold, and still night invites the moon to gently reflect across the many lakes and rivers that divide and unite our landscape.
These events aren’t as solid as a mountain or as large as the ocean, but their function is still the same.
I’m now sure that I could move “somewhere beautiful” and never get bored with it. Because it’s beautiful here, in the Midwest, and after two and half decades, I haven’t gotten bored of it.
