It seems many people who haven’t been to North Dakota operate under the impression that we all live on a boring, empty plain in the middle of nowhere.

I ran into this misconception last year when I studied in England.

“No way, North Dakota exists!” my friends said. I was the first North Dakotan any of them had seen. Quite the ancient artifact, let me tell you.

Later in the year, I made some comment about missing the snow back home, and how enjoyable it was.

“You should come visit me in Fargo when we get back to the states,” I said to my friend from Arizona. “It’s pretty great.”

“If I’m in Fargo, that means I’m dead and a spirit because the only way I would go to Fargo is if I was dead and hell was Fargo,” my friend replied.

I responded with some witty comment about sand fleas and that if Fargo was hell, “hell hath frozen over,” but I can’t remember exactly how it went.

But really, North Dakota isn’t so bad. What’s so bad about wide-open spaces anyway? Where else can you see the world’s largest buffalo or the world’s largest sandhill crane? Nowhere, because they are the world’s largest. Sheesh, talk about your easy answers.

Where else can you attend a Scandinavian festival called Uff Da Day, in the hometown of the world’s largest flipped hamburger? Shout-out to Rutland, ND. You can even compete in the wife-carrying contest to win the wife’s weight in beer.

Speaking of all of this, I just attended Uff Da Day last weekend. I got sick on lefse, krumkake,rommegrot and ebelskivers. What’s not to love?

Where else can you see the seasons change from green summer to beautiful yellow fall to a crisp white winter? Where else can you have a white Christmas? (Every other northern state, I know, but I’m trying to be all nostalgic here. Give me this moment).

Where else can you drive for miles without seeing another person? Where else can you look out onto the blank canvas of open rolling prairie?

Where else can you walk to class through piles of snow, directly into a 30 mph wind? Where else can the air actually make your face hurt? Where else does it get dark by 4:30 in the afternoon? Where else is it blazing hot in the summer and colder than a mother-in-law’s heart in the winter? Where else does spring turn the roads into slushy disasters?

Come to think of it, why do I live here?