Everyone around here, everyone is so near.

Today was kind of strange, in a totally not strange way. I got up at one and walked to school at 2:40 and it was just beautiful out. It still is, but it was so nice out, I can't believe I slept in and missed part of such a hot day. I got to campus and people were just everywhere. All over the sidewalks, sitting on most every bench, and covering the mall's main grassy area. Everyone was with their group, but at the same time everyone was together. It's something you just have to know what I mean, and if you goto Morris, you just know. It's what makes us work when we're in the middle of nowhere. (Lots of double yous in that centence.)
And people were playing frisbee, reading, sunbathing, playing music, sleeping, and, like me, listening to music. I talked to Colin S. for a while about things, which I don't do enough for sure, especially since we're living together next year. But we talked about how Morris might actually be tolerable during the spring and summer seasons. The wind during the winter just makes things colder and more miserable, but on a day when it's 80 out, it makes it wonderful. It makes frisbee hard to play and fun to watch though. But I will be enjoying the city during those times and going back to Morris will be cold again, but that's okay. That's part of living here, and I like it.
I was thinking about how we put up with such miserableness for most of the year, and I think it's just what we do. I don't know why, but we just do it. I always thought it made us enjoy the good days and appreciate the warm days. I also think midwesterners are very good at keeping fronts. We do it to the cold weather so much, we start to do it to people too. There is a lyric from a best friends forever song that goes:
"I'm a good example of a Minnesotan. I'm fine, fine, fine, but I'm always overloaded. I hate to inconvenience anyone that's nice. So instead I sacrifice myself"
Does that not fit, at least a small part, how each of us is. I passed a friend today and said hi and he responded with "how are you?". I said good and we walked in our separate directions. I am good, but I would say the same thing if I wasn't either. I know, cause that's what I did. "How are you?" is not, in my opinion, the same as a hello or hi. It leaves me feeling bad if I don't ask them it back, but we're usually too far away at that point. If we look at is as a rhetorical question and not expecting a truthful answer, then it does fit I guess. But I feel that that is silly.
It makes me think about how much of our psychology is influenced by where we live. I'd say there is a connection with the cold climate and how we hid inside, from the cold and from people.