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Michelle,
You are a wonderful person. I'm very proud to have gone to school with you. You will be successful in whatever you do. Don't let people push you around, because you know what you want. Good luck next year. When you're rich and famous, don't forget us at Como Park.
♥Megan Moos
Megan... was never nice to me. This signature is a contradiction to how she treated me throughout high school. As such, I will use it to help me define "Minnesota nice." But first, I may as well say a few things about Megan.
Megan was very athletic and highly involved in the AP program in high school. I believe she received the Athena award her senior year. And she deserved it. She was a spectacular athlete and did a wonderful job of keeping her grades up.
She was also one of the most stuck-up people I knew.
Now... if you live in Minnesota, you've probably heard the term "Minnesota nice." You've possibly heard it even if you don't live there. It's usually used to describe how people drive... but it's far more obviously present in the way people treat others they don't know.
Now, don't get me wrong... this is by no means limited to my home state, nor is that the only term people use to describe the phenomenon.
Okay, so the simplest way to describe the phenomenon is to call it a facade. People hide behind their ideal image of "I'm a nice person, and I'll go out of my way to make sure you think I'm a nice person." But they don't do a very good job of it. In fact, it's mostly insincere. When people are driving, the insincerity is much less obvious. Most people attribute it to road rage. But it's really that the driver believes you have no right to share the road with her and is doing her best, albeit pathetically, to appease you so that you'll go away. And then she gets upset when that doesn't work. ::shrugs::
But I think the best description of it was in an article in the Pioneer Press once. The writer was describing people on the University of Minnesota campus, and said something along the lines of "They'll smile and say 'hi' to you when you pass them on the street, but the look in their eyes tells you that they really just want you to drop dead on the spot because you have no right to intrude on their existence."
Now, having gone to the U for a while, I can say that that description is very accurate. They do indeed say "hi" to you, but the implication is "Hi, do I know you? Nevermind. I don't want to know you."
But that's just one variety. Another was encountered when I was walking to the Technical College from a few bus stops too far. (Normally, I'd get off right at the TC... but I missed my stop.) As I was walking to class, some strange man said "good morning" to me. I was upset about having missed my stop, so I ignored him. Granted, that wasn't a polite thing to do, but the other man who was with him stopped me and yelled at me for not greeting him back. He said something like "Did you hear the man? He said 'good morning' to you. You best say 'good morning' back!" and was generally threatening. Now... being threatened in downtown St. Paul while I'm alone and upset wasn't something I wanted to deal with... especially not over something so trivial. So I apologized, said I hadn't heard him, and continued to class. Yet another defining factor... anger at not playing along with their facade. But... yeah... I think maybe you get the picture now.
I'm tired of ranting now... so 'bye.
9. Ojos Así
~Kirideth
You are a wonderful person. I'm very proud to have gone to school with you. You will be successful in whatever you do. Don't let people push you around, because you know what you want. Good luck next year. When you're rich and famous, don't forget us at Como Park.
♥Megan Moos
Megan... was never nice to me. This signature is a contradiction to how she treated me throughout high school. As such, I will use it to help me define "Minnesota nice." But first, I may as well say a few things about Megan.
Megan was very athletic and highly involved in the AP program in high school. I believe she received the Athena award her senior year. And she deserved it. She was a spectacular athlete and did a wonderful job of keeping her grades up.
She was also one of the most stuck-up people I knew.
Now... if you live in Minnesota, you've probably heard the term "Minnesota nice." You've possibly heard it even if you don't live there. It's usually used to describe how people drive... but it's far more obviously present in the way people treat others they don't know.
Now, don't get me wrong... this is by no means limited to my home state, nor is that the only term people use to describe the phenomenon.
Okay, so the simplest way to describe the phenomenon is to call it a facade. People hide behind their ideal image of "I'm a nice person, and I'll go out of my way to make sure you think I'm a nice person." But they don't do a very good job of it. In fact, it's mostly insincere. When people are driving, the insincerity is much less obvious. Most people attribute it to road rage. But it's really that the driver believes you have no right to share the road with her and is doing her best, albeit pathetically, to appease you so that you'll go away. And then she gets upset when that doesn't work. ::shrugs::
But I think the best description of it was in an article in the Pioneer Press once. The writer was describing people on the University of Minnesota campus, and said something along the lines of "They'll smile and say 'hi' to you when you pass them on the street, but the look in their eyes tells you that they really just want you to drop dead on the spot because you have no right to intrude on their existence."
Now, having gone to the U for a while, I can say that that description is very accurate. They do indeed say "hi" to you, but the implication is "Hi, do I know you? Nevermind. I don't want to know you."
But that's just one variety. Another was encountered when I was walking to the Technical College from a few bus stops too far. (Normally, I'd get off right at the TC... but I missed my stop.) As I was walking to class, some strange man said "good morning" to me. I was upset about having missed my stop, so I ignored him. Granted, that wasn't a polite thing to do, but the other man who was with him stopped me and yelled at me for not greeting him back. He said something like "Did you hear the man? He said 'good morning' to you. You best say 'good morning' back!" and was generally threatening. Now... being threatened in downtown St. Paul while I'm alone and upset wasn't something I wanted to deal with... especially not over something so trivial. So I apologized, said I hadn't heard him, and continued to class. Yet another defining factor... anger at not playing along with their facade. But... yeah... I think maybe you get the picture now.
I'm tired of ranting now... so 'bye.
9. Ojos Así
~Kirideth
