The culture whiplash of the midwest
Three years ago, when I undertook the 22-hour drive from my home in Massachusetts to Vermillion to attend USD, I didn’t really think about how different life would be in the Midwest.
Of course, I knew things would be different, but it’s different in a lot of ways that I didn’t expect.
The most obvious difference is the landscape. There are no dozen-mile stretches of nothing but farmland in Massachusetts.
This, alongside the disparity in population between the two states, creates a jarring experience whenever I go home.
A 20-minute drive in SD versus MA are very different experiences. In SD, it means hopping on the highway and driving through fields until you get to the next town over.
In MA, it means sitting in copious stop lights and congested intersections as you brave the centers of 2 other towns, all while dealing with drivers that would rather die than let you merge.
People always talk about ‘Midwest Nice,’ but no one ever mentions ‘Northeast Mean.’
From what I’ve seen, if someone from around here isn’t fond of you, they will still be nice and polite to your face. If a New Englander doesn’t like you, you’ll know. We tend to be blunter when talking to people, for better or worse.
I know that a lot of my Midwestern friends are better at being polite to people they dislike than I am.
Another thing that I really wanted to discuss is Midwest food. I find myself endlessly baffled by Midwest food. During my freshman year, I remember the cafeteria serving me a cinnamon roll submerged in chili.
When I expressed dismay and confusion about this, all my friends looked at me like I was the crazy one. Even to this day, I assert that some foods, like cinnamon rolls and chili shouldn’t go together.
There’s also a fascination with ranch dressing in the Midwest. Look, I like ranch perfectly fine. I have it on salads, sometimes I’ll even dip a slice of pizza in it. I know people around here that use ranch as their default sauce for anything.
I cannot imagine going to a fast-food place and, out of everything available, choosing ranch as my sauce. Again, it’s a perfectly fine dressing, I’m just confused about the prominence of it.
Coming to the Midwest has been quite an important experience for me.
It’s been great to experience the culture of another part of the country, and I would definitely encourage others to try living somewhere else for a few years.
