40 degrees of weather separation

Posted Jan. 22, 2013

As I scanned through my Facebook news feed this morning, I couldn’t help but laugh. The majority of the posts were related to cold weather.

The thing is, however, the bulk of the cold weather posts were not coming from my Fargo friends, but rather, those I’m connected with back in Maryland and Virginia. You see, the East Coast was hit with a cold snap just as the Fargo-Moorhead area was. The difference? Oh, about 40 degrees.

While living in the Midwest has brought forth many positive personality characteristics in myself, I am sad to say the one negative trait that has emerged is viewing the rest of the country as wimpy when it comes to cold weather. “Twenty degrees above zero and you’re whining? Suck it up!” I hear myself saying. I sound more like a grumpy old man (ironically, also a movie that was based in the Upper Midwest) rather than a patient, empathetic, nurturing, 20-something year old.

“You wanna’ know what real cold feels like? Come to Fargo!” I grumble.

And as I pushed the button of my automatic car start, zipped up my knee-length down coat, and wrapped a wool scarf half-way up my face this morning before venturing outside, I realized maybe I was overreacting just a bit. It wasn’t that long ago when I too thought twenty degrees above zero was cold. So, stay warm my East Coast friends! I’m sending you warm thoughts from the sunny state of North Dakota.

Adkisson blogs about her

adventures of discovering life as a new Midwesterner at

becomingmidwestern.

areavoices.com

Tags: news, weatjer