The winters are cold, cloudy, and snowy. The closest Chick-fil-A is an hour away. The governor is at best incompetent and at worst commanding a troop of flying monkeys. 

This is Michigan.

But, as I returned home to my muggy swampland of southern Louisiana this break — and rewatched ESPN’s 30 for 30 on the Pistons for the 100th time — I realized I’ve actually enjoyed the place I’ve lived for the past three years. And, dare I say, I’ll miss Michigan after graduation. 

Lorelai Gilmore famously “smells snow” in seasons two and five of “Gilmore Girls.” I never got that when I was younger — snow where I’m from smells like dirty sludge that blades of grass still loom over. I know what snow smells like because of Michigan, and it’s just as good as she described. 

In-state students have had more white Christmases in their lives than most of us will probably ever see, and I’m jealous. Maybe not as jealous as the California and Texas kids, but jealous nonetheless. 

And, riddle me this: if we didn’t all go to a school this cold, how would mock trial bros ever get to show off their thrice-layered, Burberry outfits?

Michigan is also, undoubtedly, one of the most interesting states for sports fanatics. I dressed up as Pistons’s Center, Bill Lambier, for Halloween in 8th grade, in Virginia — decades after his career ended — because Michigan sports are that entertaining. People like Ty Cobb, Isiah Thomas, and recently Jim Harbaurgh have made hundreds of thousands of people across the country proud to root for the home team.

Car buffs will tell you Michigan is top-notch as well. Look around the Olds parking lot, most of those brands had representatives in Detroit at some time or another. If you haven’t been yet, go to the Henry Ford Museum and you’ll see the greatness of the Motor City. 

Nature’s another tool in the cool-state arsenal. Hillsdale students have six National Parks and 103 State Parks to visit all within driving distance. That’s more than almost any other state in the union. Every fall and spring break I watch hoards of students scour the UP, our Student Activity Board sponsors ski trips every year, and we still have the gall to say that where we go to school is boring. 

For these fleeting years, we get to live in one of the most interesting places in the country. It snows in the winters, and it’s hot as any American beach in the summers. It’s rich with history — and not just the political kind. It has some of the greatest sights I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. 

I’m tired of the Michigan slander. And, believe me, if my fiance from Ohio can’t convince me that this place is a nightmarish hellhole, nothing can.