The Happiest Place On Earth

It’s one of my faintest memories, always heating my father explain how life was so much better for so many reasons, when he was growing up. The way he would explain the trusting communities he once enjoyed playing with his friends made feelings of jealousy arise, longing for something like that in my own reality. Everyday life in Arizona proved vastly different, surrounded by so many people who weren’t from this state. With the lifestyle came my everyday environment, filled with drugs and distrust for the next man I would encounter. Ready for a change and a way out, a geographical change came my way and opened me up to a world I hadn't known existed. I haven’t taken as much gratitude from anything as I have small town, Minnesota because of it’s hospitable people, beautiful surroundings, and delicious foods. Traveling through green-filled, wide open spaces, from one town to the next, I had arrived. Driving into my next home, filled with enough anxiety to kill a horse, was the town of Fairmont, Minnesota. With a population less than most apartment complexes I’d resided, I drove past the first resident of this small community. To absolute shock, I had received a wave of the hand, followed by the next resident flashing a peace sign in my direction. As though this wasn’t enough of a friendly surprise, Freedom was a place I’d refill the car with gasoline. Apart from the wonderful customer service spoken in a Canadian-like accent, I’d been rejected trying to “pre-pay” for my gasoline. Floored, a place where the citizens of the community were trusted to pump gas and then go in and pay. In addition to the wonderful sense of humor and kindness the people around showed with such exuberance, it was apparent nobody locked the doors to their homes or took their keys out of the ignition when quickly running into the store. I wondered if the beautiful, lush-filled landscape contributed to such happiness. It was fall and that means the changing of colors for all of the wilderness. All around were the greenest hills, assortment of trees, and beautiful lakes. To this day, I don’t know more than half of the different plants and animals I saw all around. Driving up north to explore, I would see an assortment of birds of all different colors. Some would be bright blue, bluer than the sky on it’s most clear day. Red birds, so vibrant, my peripheral could never overlook as they swayed by in the breeze. Northern Minnesota also brought an even more unimaginable landscape. The further north I would travel, the thicker the bluffs would become. The cleaner the atmosphere all around would be inhaled. every deep breath took less effort. This played significantly with the amazing delicacies consumed. Purely based on taste and avoiding the discussion of health, the Midwest is home to some of the most delicious food ever tasted. From Thanksgiving feasts to barbecue on Fourth of July weekend, I was in love. Commonly served, broasted chicken, was an entire new take on the preparation and cooking of chicken and it tasted amazing. Healthy foods, such as cabbage, that aren't especially popular, tasted amazing here. Something they would call candy cabbage, where they would use brown sugar in the recipe to liven up the taste, completed this vegetable with a taste of heaven. An entire world that could have gone on forever without realization, experienced. Experiencing the importance of food in an entirely different culture, right in my American backyard. Beautiful surroundings and a clean environment so fresh, I could smell all the plants and trees for miles. Most importantly, the people that would leave an everlasting impression on my heart. Introduced to trust and honesty throughout an entire community, where police helicopters didn’t fly above every night, and the war on drugs was something I’d have known nothing about, if not from a place where things couldn’t be said the same for. Definitely something that has forever reinstalled personal faith in the beauty of life and why this life is important to make the most of.