Maybe Illinois Isn't So Terrible After All
Central Illinois is objectively a pretty boring place. There's not a lot to do. Towns are separated by miles of corn and soybeans, and the only cities are Chicago and Peoria. Even the landscape is dull -- it's flat. The largest hills around here are manmade. But it's all I've ever known, so I suppose I do like it to an extent. Although, no one from outside of Illinois seems to understand why I like Illinois. I suppose it does sound like a flat wasteland, but Illinois still has its positive aspects.
1. You'll never get lost.
The one pro of the extreme flatness of Illinois is that there's no reason to create winding streets. Champaign was (mostly) constructed with a massive mile by mile grid system of main streets with extra smaller streets within each box of the grid. When you travel outside of Champaign into Central Illinois farmland, the grid system is even more pronounced since all that's left are the mile by mile squares without any smaller streets within them. As long as you can find your way to a main road, it's pretty hard to get lost in Champaign. Miss your turn? Just take the next one, you'll probably get to the same street you meant to get to in the first place. Perhaps that's a rather simplified view of it, but the point is you're not screwed if you miss a turn in Champaign. Maybe it's a little boring, but I definitely appreciate that.
2. The view can't be beat...
Another pro of Central Illinois's flat geography is that you can see for miles. In the fall and winter, after the corn has been harvested and the dead stalks left to rot, if you get just far enough into the country you can look out and see until the end of the world. Nothing is blocking your view; the space is limitless. It's the exact opposite of claustrophobia. In fact, if you've spent enough time in Illinois and never around mountains, going somewhere with mountains is disorienting and to an extent, uncomfortable. I've rarely been in the mountains, but when I have I feel trapped. How could you live in a place where you can't see to the next county?
3. ...and neither can the sunsets.
Open sky? Flat land? Perfect view for sunsets. I don't know what it is about Illinois, but we get some of the best sunsets around. Words can't do Illinois's sunsets justice -- or at least, my words can't. They have so much variation. The best sunsets are the ones with clouds. The clouds reflect the light of the setting sun in colors ranging from gold to scarlet. Some clouds are fluffed like cotton balls, others have the appearance of a paint stroke, but all capture the intense colors of Midwestern sunsets.
4. To be completely honest, corn is soothing.
Part of this one might be because I've grown up around corn. Corn signals home to me: I always know we're close to home when we start hitting the cornfields on the highway. It brings me a strange sense of comfort, and I'm always confused when I see a cornfield outside of Illinois. Corn is inherently an Illinois thing to me. I can understand seeing it in other Midwestern states, but nothing confuses me more than driving through Pennsylvania and seeing a cornfield. Corn belongs in the flatlands of Illinois and other such states. I've seen cornfields in Ohio, but Ohio has hills, and something about corn on hills is wrong. There's something special about looking out over the very tops of corn plants as they wave in the wind. It's a sense of peace that can't be replicated by anything else. Watching row after row of corn pass by at 70mph from a car is mesmerizing. They blend together, separate briefly, and form a different kind of ocean. I may not have grown up next to the sea, but corn creates a landlocked ocean for me.
5. Our seasons are bizarre, but they're kind of nice in a weird way.
We kind of skip fall and spring in Illinois and instead get the extremes of heat and cold in summer and winter. I honestly can't defend winter. It mostly sucks. The only redeeming quality is that it occasionally snows, but other than that we're freezing for nothing. But please don't think I love the other end of the spectrum -- I dislike Illinois's summer heat indexes as much as the next person. But the sun beating down while cicadas scream from the trees is an aggressively Illinois thing that I might just miss when I leave. Watching the corn slowly grow to block your eyesight whenever you drive through the fields is a staple experience of Illinois summers. Grass withers in the intense heat and fireflies flit around once night falls.
The one pro of the extreme flatness of Illinois is that there's no reason to create winding streets. Champaign was (mostly) constructed with a massive mile by mile grid system of main streets with extra smaller streets within each box of the grid. When you travel outside of Champaign into Central Illinois farmland, the grid system is even more pronounced since all that's left are the mile by mile squares without any smaller streets within them. As long as you can find your way to a main road, it's pretty hard to get lost in Champaign. Miss your turn? Just take the next one, you'll probably get to the same street you meant to get to in the first place. Perhaps that's a rather simplified view of it, but the point is you're not screwed if you miss a turn in Champaign. Maybe it's a little boring, but I definitely appreciate that.
Another pro of Central Illinois's flat geography is that you can see for miles. In the fall and winter, after the corn has been harvested and the dead stalks left to rot, if you get just far enough into the country you can look out and see until the end of the world. Nothing is blocking your view; the space is limitless. It's the exact opposite of claustrophobia. In fact, if you've spent enough time in Illinois and never around mountains, going somewhere with mountains is disorienting and to an extent, uncomfortable. I've rarely been in the mountains, but when I have I feel trapped. How could you live in a place where you can't see to the next county?
Open sky? Flat land? Perfect view for sunsets. I don't know what it is about Illinois, but we get some of the best sunsets around. Words can't do Illinois's sunsets justice -- or at least, my words can't. They have so much variation. The best sunsets are the ones with clouds. The clouds reflect the light of the setting sun in colors ranging from gold to scarlet. Some clouds are fluffed like cotton balls, others have the appearance of a paint stroke, but all capture the intense colors of Midwestern sunsets.
Part of this one might be because I've grown up around corn. Corn signals home to me: I always know we're close to home when we start hitting the cornfields on the highway. It brings me a strange sense of comfort, and I'm always confused when I see a cornfield outside of Illinois. Corn is inherently an Illinois thing to me. I can understand seeing it in other Midwestern states, but nothing confuses me more than driving through Pennsylvania and seeing a cornfield. Corn belongs in the flatlands of Illinois and other such states. I've seen cornfields in Ohio, but Ohio has hills, and something about corn on hills is wrong. There's something special about looking out over the very tops of corn plants as they wave in the wind. It's a sense of peace that can't be replicated by anything else. Watching row after row of corn pass by at 70mph from a car is mesmerizing. They blend together, separate briefly, and form a different kind of ocean. I may not have grown up next to the sea, but corn creates a landlocked ocean for me.
We kind of skip fall and spring in Illinois and instead get the extremes of heat and cold in summer and winter. I honestly can't defend winter. It mostly sucks. The only redeeming quality is that it occasionally snows, but other than that we're freezing for nothing. But please don't think I love the other end of the spectrum -- I dislike Illinois's summer heat indexes as much as the next person. But the sun beating down while cicadas scream from the trees is an aggressively Illinois thing that I might just miss when I leave. Watching the corn slowly grow to block your eyesight whenever you drive through the fields is a staple experience of Illinois summers. Grass withers in the intense heat and fireflies flit around once night falls.
As much as I want to get out and explore the world, I have a deeply rooted, intense love for the midwest, and Illinois in particular, that I could never ever put words to. It's simply home. But I think you do a good job describing what it is about Illinois that makes it so unique and special, even when a little boring. The images truly capture the essence of what loving the midwest is like - sure you complain about the weather and the corn, but at the end of the day, when it's all you've ever known, it still manages to take your breath away.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed your photographs of the skies of Illinois. Coming from Minnesota the Midwest has been a place of reduced extremes. Features which you pointed out excellently in your post. I find the simplicity of navigation, and open landscape to be very relaxing. It is also nice as you can see weather coming from miles away, while in mountainous regions weather is unpredictable and can bring a sunny day to thunder and lightning in an instant. There is something indescribably comforting about the ability to look out and see all that exists for miles, something unique to this land of corn I've come to love.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, I used to sort of resent Illinois for being so plain and boring. Whenever I asked my parents why they chose Champaign of all places to raise me, they always told me that the older I got, the more I would realize how nice IL is. And honestly, I really have grown to love the midwest sunsets, cornfields, and weather you talked about :)
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you ordered your points into a numbered list because it gives the reader a way to comprehend the information you give them easily and understand each individual point better. I liked a lot of the points you used, especially the first one. In Champaign-Urbana, it's really easy to understand locations because of the roads, but in places other than Illinois, it's really confusing because the roads are weirdly shaped and not straight.
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