A picture John Dawes took of the sun setting in Brodie’s parking lot.
This senior year, I am working diligently to be more mindful, present and overall in touch with myself and what is around me. That means listening to more music outside my comfort zone, being more willing to take risks, finding time to meditate and overall being more connected.
In doing that, I finally realized something I always took for granted, and that was the state of Nebraska. Maybe after being here for 21 years I started to take it for granted, but I finally learned to accept that Nebraska is something wholly unique and worth loving, more importantly that you can find something beautiful everywhere.
I remember my first year doing Adventure Zone in 2023 I had the question that felt impossible to answer. Adventure Zone features middle school students from Tokyo, Japan, visiting Nebraska and staying at either Doane or the University of Nebraska Lincoln. While they were staying, I kept asking myself, “Why on Earth would anyone be excited to stay a week in Nebraska?”
I held some level of guilt at the time, feeling like our state robbed them of something special and could never stack up to a state like California or New York. But after years of being angry that my state had nothing to offer, I finally looked at what it did offer and I learned to be much kinder to it.
I find myself shocked and humbled by the sheer size of the cornfields and how much work it takes to maintain them on every run we do for cross country. I find myself taking more pictures of sunsets and sunrises and appreciating how different they look compared to every other state in the U.S. I flash a big smile whenever I see a cow or a horse.
Even back home in Omaha or Lincoln, I try to explore the cities instead of just throwing my hands up and saying, “Well, there’s nothing to do.” I’m finding more restaurants and new routes to run. I try to visit as many local bookstores as possible.
I’ve gotten well acquainted with the University of Nebraska Omaha and Lincoln libraries and love just seeing what other students my age are working on or helping them with their surveys for class. I try to visit coffee places in Lincoln when I get in a rut studying and use the new opportunity to inspire me to maybe make a breakthrough on my assignments or stories.
Your state or wherever you live is only as interesting as you make it. If you believe that you’re stuck and there’s nothing to find, then you’ll only find nothing. But I have felt more connected to everything — the businesses, the people and the land — by going out of my way to appreciate it more.
