The midwest is best

Election night a few weeks ago was an exciting time to be from Ohio. The country's fate was left to the Buckeye State, and while I regret the way my fellow Ohioans voted, I still enjoyed the national attention we received. Perhaps the election season spotlight was so refreshing because here at Princeton, Ohio doesn't often register on people's radar.

"People only really think about the east and west coasts," says Tommy McLaughlin '06 from Andover, Mass. "Everything in the middle of the country pretty much gets forgotten."

In the partially Princeton-inspired world of "The Great Gatsby," Fitzgerald's main character Nick Carraway describes the Midwest, his home, as the "ragged edge of the universe."

That was written in 1925. But apparently, the more things change the more they stay the same. Today, nearly 40 percent of the student body comes from New York, New Jersey and California alone. And it's undeniable that the enormous coastal contingency dictates our collective geographic consciousness. In the rare moments that Middle America does come up in conversation, it's usually packaged in misinformed stereotypes.

Sure, a few savvy students were able to glean morsels of Ohio information from the few times they watched "The Drew Carey Show." But for much of the student body, they only know that Ohio is — well, er, umm, where exactly is Ohio?

"The middle of nowhere," suggests Whitney Brooks '07 from San Diego.

"I think of it as being all farmers and farmland," she says. "And you guys have funny names for things, like saying pop instead of soda."

On such a cosmopolitan campus, perhaps you can see how someone like me, who hails from the Heartland, might be led to believe he's some sort of country bumpkin. When I first tell people I'm from Ohio, they look at me as though I should be wearing a straw hat and have my jean bottoms rolled up. And then there's always the letdown that comes when they find out I don't play a mean banjo.

Now we all have our biases, and I'm as quick to stereotype as anyone else. When someone tells me they're from Kentucky — which is only a five-minute drive from my house — I immediately start scrutinizing them for missing teeth and NASCAR tattoos. But those are problems for the 'Prince''s' Kentucky columnist to deal with. My job is to set the record straight on Ohio.

So at this point, if you're still able to decipher my strange Midwestern lexicon (I do indeed refer to soda as pop), I'd like to share a few cultural tidbits that may startle some readers. First, my wardrobe is not made up entirely of flannel shirts and overalls. I even owned several pink polos before I ever thought of applying to this prep-dom of pastels and popped-collars.

Second, the spring sport at my high school was not coon huntin' or corn shuckin'. I actually played for my school's lacrosse team.

Finally, I've always been pretty sure that when people here talk about "the City," they aren't referring to Akron.

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So you see, I'm not so rough around the edges, after all. My upbringing in the Midwest may not have been as fast-paced or swanky as that of many students on this campus — but I'm not sure that's such a bad thing.

What I do know about the Midwest is this: The traffic is light, the stress level is low, and most importantly, the people are warm, friendly and genuine. Is it possible these are simply more unfounded stereotypes and generalizations?

Perhaps, but I know of a prominent Princetonian who agrees with me. He's certainly more eloquent than I, and he has a similar fondness for initials. He's also the one who decides for Nick Carraway to return home in the end, back to the Midwest, back to the "warm center of the world."

Take it from me and F. Scott: There's another side of paradise. P.G. Sittenfeld is a sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio. He can be reached at pg@princeton.edu.