I am very lucky to have a mother who always wanted to expose me to new and exciting things and most importantly, DIFFERENT things. We took several trips to Minneapolis when I was a kid for school clothes shopping, art museums, science museums, concerts, and sometimes just to get away. I grew up in Superior, Wisconsin and if you've never been there I can tell you it's not very exciting. It's beautiful in so many ways, but there isn't much to do or see besides grand Lake Superior. I remember coming down here and driving through downtown Minneapolis and just feeling alive inside seeing all of the action and diversity here. I would arch my neck sitting in the backseat of my mom's car to get a good look at the skyscrapers surrounding me. For some reason I just always felt like it was where I belonged. I wanted to be a part of the action, to be in the middle of all of the people, to experience differences and the city life. I always told my mom "Some day, Mom, I'm going to live here and work downtown." And here I am. I could probably write a novel about why I love Minneapolis but I've narrowed it down to the categories below. :)
1. ART! Art is everywhere in Minneapolis. Riding the bus home through downtown and then Uptown, I find myself inspired and amazed at all the ways and places art can be displayed. It's on the walls of buildings everywhere, from the shrine of celebrities on a building on Hennepin & 11th (I think), to the wall on 28th & Lyndale Avenue that says "art changes everything." Art is even on the electrical boxes!! How clever! Across the street from my apartment on the wall of the Volunteers of America Building, there's an AMAZING mosaic tree that I absolutely love. Walking around Lake Harriet, I always see someone painting an amazing picture of the lake with the Minneapolis skyline so perfectly placed in the background. And there's constantly someone painting a mural on a wall of a building somewhere. I love seeing it come together and how beautiful and interesting all of it is. It's encouraged in this city to just create and display art pretty much anywhere you want! And it's also meant to prevent graffiti. I love it. I can't express how much I love this part of Minneapolis. It warms my heart on a daily basis. The wall on 28th & Lyndale is my absolute favorite. Art really does change everything.
2. Diversity! What would this city be without diversity? What is diversity? Well, I could be wrong, but I believe diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era. Sorry but I had to quote Anchorman there... if you haven't seen the movie, see it. It's dumb but hilarious. Back to REAL diversity! I want to bathe in Minneapolis' deep, ever-changing diversity. I want to try food from every culture and that's the great thing... you can do that in Minneapolis. I'm completely obsessed with Indian/Nepali/Tibetan food. I could eat it every day. In fact, I might marry a man from that culture just so I could eat it every day. One of the best things I think about exposing yourself to diversity is it eliminates judgments and prejudices. The more you understand people from different backgrounds and cultures, the less likely you are to judge them and the less people get hurt in this world. I truly believe that. You can agree with me or not.
Not only is Minneapolis full of many races, religions and cultures, but it's very accepting of people's sexual orientations. How many cities can you get a free copy of a GLBT magazine on every street corner? I am in love with the fact that people in Minneapolis (in most places) can just be themselves. They have a place and they have a purpose in this city. They MAKE this city better! They truly are strong, amazing PEOPLE!! And since I was talking about food from different cultures, that brings me to my next reason why I love this city.......
3. FOOD! I am overwhelmed DAILY on the amount of restaurants and different types of food this city has to offer. I could make a list literally a mile long with the restaurants I want to try and still haven't...and I've lived here for three years. And the best thing is, they are privately owned. They are owned by people who live here and love this city. The other wonderful thing is a lot of the food is grown on local farms. It is NOT hard to find a good, inexpensive, organic, Minnesota-grown meal. Finding a chain restaurant in Minneapolis is beginning to be like finding Waldo (which I always thought was hard). I love trying things I have never tried before and learning about new, great meals. Another plus is that most of these restaurants have fabulous happy hours!! Maybe I should also start blogging about restaurants I try... hmm. This may be a future endeavor. On to numero 4!
4. Tourism! Okay even though every day when I'm walking to the bus stop and there's a Twins game, I get extremely irritated with the SEA of Twins shirts, slow walkers, lost people, and people who don't know how to cross the street properly, I secretly love that Minneapolis offers SO much! What ISN'T here for tourists?? Beautiful lakes, parks and bike trails (Minneapolis was rated number 1 biking city), Target Field, Target Center, The Metrodome, The Guthrie, The Walker, Minneapolis Institute of Arts (they have Van Gogh!), The Orpheum, First Avenue; I could go on forever. And even though I am now a "local" and I can't help but secretly get annoyed with the lost people downtown, I love that people want to come here. Because there truly is so much to see and do.
5. Adversity. To some of you, adversity may not be seen as a positive aspect of anything. But I try to look at adversity from a different perspective. I think adversity creates hope. It truly does break my heart to see the numerous homeless people standing with signs on street corners, showing their one remaining talent at Nicollet Mall for coins, and sleeping on benches, but I really believe that people need to struggle to make other people feel compassion and be grateful. Without suffering, there would be no compassion. I believe that quote is from the Bible and even though I'm not an avid Bible reader and I wouldn't call myself a religious person, I completely believe that is true.
You may be thinking "Minneapolis is boring compared to most cities," or "Geez, Nicole, you settled on a city only 2 hours from where you grew up." But I don't care. Minneapolis is an unbelievable city with so much to offer. I've had this conversation with many people and I don't know many people who truly know where they belong and feel a sense of belonging. I know that I belong here. Every time I come back from a trip out of town, drive up 35W and the amazing skyline appears, my entire body is warm; I am home.
I didn't take this photo but I think it's a BEAUTIFUL one!! Ahhh, Minneapolis. I love you. Lead with your heart... it knows where you belong. <3 <3
P.S. I don't know what happened with the font in this blog. I tried to fix it and failed miserably. Sorry!
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