Monday, April 21, 2008

Montana Girl

I sent most of my youth wanting to get out of Montana. As far as I was concerned my parents kidnapped me when we moved there. I really thought that if I cried hard enough they would let me (4 years old) stay with Grandma and Aunt Janie. Aunt Janie tells me she thought if she cried hard enough they would let me stay.
Some time in the last years of high school I realized I was a Montana girl. I wanted to go see the world but going to see the world was no longer driven by getting away from Montana, it was more about telling the world how Montana was better.
I grew up with the above picture just a few minutes drive north and the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi just to the south. I grew up hiking the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Jewel Basin and taking for granted that if you wanted a swim there is ALWAYS a body of water close by. I can tell you seeing picturesque England was marred by the dirty rivers that cut through the villages. I just couldn't comprehend dirty rivers.

I am not a cowgirl, I can ride a horse but just well enough that I don't fall off. I am not a skier, farmer or wilderness junkie. I like living in the Pacific Northwest but I am a Montana girl.

The sky really is bigger in Montana.

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