Being born and raised in California, the idea of moving to the Midwest was never something I ever considered until my Chief Resident in Medical School reminisced on how much she had loved her time in Kansas City, which is surprisingly in Missouri, not Kansas, by the way… I suppose that when you spend a majority of your life in a certain area, it is often hard to imagine leaving, or at least to imagine leaving for a long enough period of time that it’s not just a vacation. I’ve always wondered what the optimal amount of time is in another place to really get to know it’s nuances. How long does one need to live in a new location or is it more about how much they dive in to it. Regardless, deciding to go to the new area in the first place is likely the first hurdle and for me, this push came with locum tenens and later on the idea of Fellowship Training.

In June of 2021 I had my first opportunity to work in a small town in the Southeastern part of Missouri. This was followed with work in North Dakota, St. Louis and Wisconsin throughout the course of several months. These “fly over states” brought surprisingly nice weather, ultra-friendly people, and more exciting culture than I had anticipated. When I thought back to my time in the West and East Coast, as well as the South, I realized that throughout my life, I have heard hardly anything regarding the midwest or the great plains. I knew nothing other than the fact that there was land there, and as many of my friends still believe, I thought it was just a big rural countryside – clearly, that is not the case.

With the ability to travel all over the world at ease, there are still some places that are sadly neglected due to possible propaganda or narcissism inherent to a particular community. It’s maybe not always intentional, but in California, we mainly spoke about California. On the East Coast, we mostly spoke of the East Coast. And, in the South, I mean, Texas thinks it is it’s own nation, which is an entirely different conversation. Regardless, for some reasons, as much as the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf are discussed in mainstream forms of social media as well as news stations, the midwest is largely neglected; unless, of course, a football team from the center of the country makes headway and wins a SuperBowl *coughcough.* Still, even if some more positive praise is brought to focus on the middle of the country, there are still stereotypes of the area and the people there which, with time and my experience traveling for locums work, I have found not even worthy of a simple grain of salt.

It is easy to be self-centered and not realize how vast the world can be. I remember trying to convince friends of mine from the West and East Coasts to visit Kansas City, and they are always aghast at how much I love the city and how much life I find there. It’s not until they step outside of their comfort zone and actually wander through these fly over states that they realize they are worth a visit as well.

As I like to say, I’m raised on the West Coast, trained in the South, and after wandering the East Coast I made it to the Midwest fast as I could. So, the next time you need an adventure, you should definitely consider going somewhere the people around you are too afraid to venture to, it might change your life.

Image Credit: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlyoverCountry