During my lifetime I’ve lived many places.  Before the age of eleven I had already lived in Texas, Hawaii, Washington, Mississippi and Colorado.  At eleven I moved to Kentucky where I lived a total of 20 years in various towns, then Ohio for nine.  This summer marks 19 years in Nebraska.  We’ve had the opportunity to meet and know marvelous people in all of these places but there’s something special about the people of Nebraska.

Yes, there are PEOPLE in Nebraska.  Sure, we joke about the fact that Memorial Stadium is the 3rd largest city in the state when there’s a football game, and yes we joke that there are more cattle than people in the state, but contrary to what most people believe, there are people here.  People who choose to be here, people who are proud to be here.  People who love the fact that Nebraska is not for everyone.  So most of the time, when Nebraskans are ignored it’s just not that big a deal.  In fact I had a friend here once who commented that they loved that not everyone wanted to be here – that they loved the state just the way it was.

Nebraskans see beauty in so many aspects of their state, from the tall grass to the farm land to the sand hills and the beautiful rivers.  The big sky is my favorite where God paints a different picture every morning and evening using every color imaginable.  And yes, they take pride in how tough they are.  I mean, it hits 30 degrees and the shorts come out! This winter has not been fun with record breaking snowfall here in Lincoln, over 50 inches and some brutally cold days.  We’ve actually had five snow/cold days this year for school and that NEVER happens.  I’ve learned to drive in this lovely stuff and while I’m not crazy about it, I’m pretty proud of myself actually.

Nebraskans take care of each other.  They love their friends and families and quietly take care of each others needs.  They don’t make a big deal about it, it’s just something you do.  This has taken me a bit of time to get used to because honestly, there’s no agenda at work here like my cynical mind tends to expect.  Nebraska Nice is not just a slogan and at no other time will you see it best than when Nebraskans are in trouble.

Nebraska is in trouble.  The state was in the middle of a record breaking low that settled on the state and produced weather like something out of a disaster movie.  The western part of the state had a blizzard of epic proportions where the only major freeway was closed for half the length of the state.  The eastern half of the state had one beautiful 60+ degree day which combined with a ton of rain and ridiculous wind (more ridiculous than usual), which very quickly melted the snowpack and sent water everywhere.  The ice jams on the Platte River have broken apart and added to the flooding.  Literally half the state is under water as each river, stream and creek flows into each other from north to south leaving devastation in their wake.  Roads are gone, bridges are gone, levees are gone, homes are gone.  Entire towns are surrounded by water with no way to get out and with drinkable water running out.

Livestock has been buried under snow in the west during calving season, and they’ve been forced to little islands in the middle of all the water in the east.  In a state that depends so much on farming and ranching this is beyond devastating.  Maybe that doesn’t matter to the rest of the country where they don’t understand why you can’t just clear all the snow right after a blizzard.  They obviously haven’t seen 6 foot drifts covering a freeway before.  I know I didn’t understand before I moved here.  I do now.

There are 2 million people in Nebraska, a few hundred thousand less than the city of Houston.  When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, it was all over the news.  I suppose that when you have a concentration of people in one of the largest cities in the country it’s a bigger deal.  But when you have the same amount of people in a flyover state, it seems it’s easy to ignore.  Especially when the people in that state don’t tend to whine or complain.  They tend to take action and help each other instead.

Nebraska is not for everyone because not everyone is tough enough to live here.  We can be completely ignored by the rest of the country and take care of ourselves.  These are descendants of pioneers who survived on the Great Plains when there was literally nothing here.  Some people may still think there’s nothing here but beauty is all in the eye of the beholder.  The longer we live here, despite the nasty winters like we had this year, the more we grow to love and appreciate the state and its people.

I’ll be the first to admit I questioned myself many times when we first moved here, like what have I gotten myself into and when can I get out.  Now I it’s hard to imagine being anywhere else – except for vacation of course.  It’s always nice to come home to Nebraska where I can now agree with the state slogan – It’s not for everyone. And we’re still here.