What are you doing here?!

Being from Washington state and moving to the Midwest has been quite interesting considering the people of the Midwest and their general response when they find out where I am originally from.  Some popular responses include the following: "What are you doing here?", "Are you crazy? You moved from a beautiful place to be surrounded by corn?!", "When are you going back? Surely you aren't planning to stick around here when you are from there".
 Every time I get one of these responses I can't help but smile.  I usually give them some sort of spiel about how my Mom is from the Midwest and my Dad's parents are also from the Midwest so I still have some family in the area, yada, yada, yada.  This answer usually seems to satisfy the confused Midwesterners, but honestly there's more to it than that.
My desire to come to Iowa may have started as a curiosity about my roots, and wanting to attend Dordt College; but it has since grown. My past four years of living in different parts of the Midwest have nurtured a love for this area. The people who ask me the "what are you doing here?!" questions don't seem to realize what they have here.  The sort of dedication that the people here have to their families, friends, religion, and work can't be as easily found on the West Coast.
There is some other indescribable attitude that goes along with being from Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota.  They are just genuinely friendly, helpful, and courteous. When you make eye contact with someone in the grocery store here they smile back to you or wave and ask how you are.  If you were to do that back home, they would most likely give you a "why are you looking at me" sort of response.  
Now I suppose that I could be fantasizing the entire thing but I really don't think that I am. Sure Washington has beautiful scenery and different opportunities for various activities, but I rather pick the Midwest just because of the people that are here. I guess the reality here is that, regardless of where you are, there is beauty to be found.  God made out planet diverse and different just for this reason, that we can try see all the different sides of beauty whether it is found in scenery or in people. I love my home state, and it will always truly be home, but I wish that others could open their eyes to the beauty of the cornfields and prairies of Iowa too.