Nebraska retrospective - an introduction

No, Nebraska is not for everyone. It's widely derided for being "flyover country," for being flat (it's the 20th flattest state, not even close to being the flattest — Florida), for being "cow country," "corn country," and for having a proud college football heritage but failing to live up to that heritage for, oh, about 20 years. But, hey, I hear they have a proper football coach again. And they've always had some of the finest mollisols on the planet. Nebraska, a heckuva place.

I had never seen a blizzard before moving to Nebraska at the age of 10. I had never had a snow day. I got both of those within days of moving there in 1987. I can still recall the wonder of driving around town after the blizzard with the snow piled high in the middle of the streets. We couldn't see cars on the other side of the road! Yeah, Nebraska is not for everyone.

Nine years of my life were spent here. These were years filled with many changes, now that I look back. From December of 1987 until the summer of 1997, this was my home. This place — that originally felt like a letdown — eventually took a warm place in my heart, mostly because of the people I met there. 

I decided I needed to write about my time in Nebraska because it's part of my larger retrospective and there are answers here to the question, "What went wrong?" So, what was the best way to do this retrospective? A road trip, of course! I did not write about the places I visited in the order I visited them. I organized them chronologically by how they became important to me. I spent five days and four nights basically covering the span of the state, running my Honda through more than 1,300 miles. To trigger memories, I made a mix SD card (with about 90 songs) with 90s music. A lot of memories are stored in songs, after all. I didn't give myself a whole lot of time in any particular place. I stayed two nights in one location because I wanted to visit three different towns. 

I took my laptop along to capture my thoughts and feelings in the moment, if possible, as a lot of memories were sure to come to the surface. But, I also expected the long drives to distill everything down to the most important points. 

One of the towns I stayed in is currently home to the woman I am in love with. This presented a challenge. How do I stay on track with my scheduled retrospective while in such close proximity to her? Well, read on.

So, basically, I walked and drove around and tried to trigger memories. A lot of things did come back. But the truth is, these were better years than the South Dakota years, and also better years than what came after! These were good years, relatively calm and peaceful. I shot through puberty and into adulthood. I became a man here. 

The big question I wanted to answer was, "What went wrong?" I was a good kid with a good heart and a good head on my shoulders. I didn't deserve the life I got. Why did I make so many stupid mistakes? The answers started to come the first day of my road trip, which was the most emotional day. 

I don't know if doing this road trip came from inside me or if God put this in front of me, but this journey (which was planned months in advance) led me down some unexpected roads. Care to come along?