Friday, July 6, 2007

Kansas vs. Missouri

Over the past month since I’ve been in Washington (and even when I was in Phoenix), people always ask me where I am from. I tell them Kansas City and they then ask, “Oh, well aren’t there two of those? Are you from Kansas or Missouri?” So we have this whole conversation about the confusion of the fact that there certainly are two Kansas Cities but I am from the MISSOURI side.

But it never fails, there is not a single person who asks me when I am going back to Kansas or what it was like growing up in Kansas or is there any civilization in Kansas where you grew up?

Maybe if I were actually from KANSAS I could say that I grew up in the middle of a hayfield, wearing overalls, chewing straw, and tipping cows. IF I was from Kansas.

Hello!? We talked for freaking hours about how I am from Missouri. I do not get why that is so hard to comprehend for every.single.person. I meet but it really baffles me. Next time I talk to someone that grew up here in Washington, I am going to make a point of later asking what it was like growing up in Oregon.

Ok, that’s stupid.

Whatever, it still annoys me. And to correct anyone that says Kansas instead of Missouri would go back to the whole “aren’t there two Kansas Cities” conversation which would still lead to them STILL thinking I’m from Kansas. So I just let them say Kansas and secretly wonder why the hell they don’t get it. I don’t know why there is this weird issue with Missouri/Kansas people. I can’t really say that one is better than the other. It’s all the Midwest. I mean, really, does it matter? To most people the Midwest is all one big blob. Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin... it's all the same. But even friends that I have that grew up in Kansas are absolutely adamant that they are from KANSAS. Maybe this whole Kansas/Missouri thing is some weird Midwest trait… although I’ve never noticed it in any Iowa or Nebraska people I’ve known. But maybe it's like how Wisconsin people call ATM machines "time machines." Hmm… well, it is what it is. And that means that I am from Missouri. Not freaking Kansas.

1 comment:

Megan said...

My friends on the West Coast didn't even know there were two Kansas Cities. They're baffled of how it all works. Haha. I hate when I go to a concert and the band says "Hello Kansas!" No. NO. You're in Missouri, jerk!

If it makes you feel better, when my brother moved to England, people always said "How does he like London?" People automatically said London for some reason. He didn't live in London. It's all very strange.