The Wilderness Between

I love Wyoming. I really feel like Gretel Ehrlich captured the feeling of the place really well—and the people. It made me miss the plains. Since I am also writing my final on Montana, it was really interesting to compare how she described that part of the country. I think our differences come because I was mainly in Montana for the summer, whereas she was in Wyoming for winter. The season and time of year completely change how you relate to a place, or how a place feels.

For example, I’ve been to Colorado Springs twice. Once in winter to ski, the other to go to the Garden of the Gods in summer. In the winter, my experience was completely dominated by the large quantities of snow that they receive there. And the fact that I don’t like skiing. But in the summer, the prominent colors I would use to describe my time there would be red and orange—the color of the rock in the garden.

I found that Ehrlich really captured the people and feel of the place. The isolation, the quiet passion, the space(!). Nothing hurries, there’s nowhere to hurry to. Everything is on Rez time. Even in an emergency, the man took his time to close the door to the cattle pen. People take care of each other in this way.

I think that St. Louis culture has been affected by its place. The people have a small town courtesy even though it is a large city. It is hard to forget our history as a Midwest town. The plains and farm land that stretch out just beyond the suburbs stand as a permanent reminder. The Arch, too, is a symbol of our frontier heritage. However, there is also a conflicting feeling from the east, the stuffy pride of a historical city.

Unlike Boston, New York, or Chicago, St. Louis’s time as a center of culture and society has dissipated. However, as St. Louis citizens, we still carry that big city, eastern pride. We have semblances of a culture all our own, museums, art, and history. We even have old money. But people aren’t afraid to look each other in the eye. We smile at strangers, instead of cutting through midday traffic with our heads down.

We pride ourselves on being a Christian city, on our name. There are always bake sales, fundraisers, and marathons. Despite the isolation of the suburbs, people are always looking for ways to help out. Just look at our baseball team. We are proud of good sportsmanship.

Nine Mile Run was a very interesting and valuable experience for me. I had done my fair share of complaining about it—it was early, and the morning after a big Halloween party, and raining. However, I actually really enjoyed myself. It was nice to get down in the earth like that, standing out in the elements. It was also so much fun to bond and work with other people in the class that I hadn’t really talked to before outside of class. Definitely worth while even if I now have a sniffle.