It’s the first day of school.
“So everyone stand up and tell me one thing interesting about you.”
Really? I never know what to say.
I think.
And then I’ve got it.

40/50.
40 out of 50?
Yup, 40/50.
I’ve seen that many.
Not flown over either;
That doesn’t count.
Actually, physically been there.
Seen the sites,
Visited friends,
Toured the best parts.
Really that many?
Yup.

I get that a lot.
I’m fifteen, and been to 40 states.
Not too many people can say that.
I’m missing: California, Oregon, Washington,
Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska,
North Dakota, Nebraska, Michigan,
Arkansas.
I want to go to all 50.
But if I don’t go to Nebraska or North Dakota, I won’t be too upset.
I don’t really think there is much to see there.

My favorites.
That’s hard.
Every state is different,
unique,
fun.
But among my favorites are:
Maine, with whale watching and eating crabs.
Arizona, with my favorite cousins and the Grand Canyon.
Texas, with The Alamo, Cadillac Ranch, the statues.
Florida with the Sun and Disney World.
Minnesota with the Mall of America,
Which just so happens to have an amusement park in the middle of it.



My least favorites.
I truthfully, honestly don’t have any.
I mean, okay, some are pretty boring.
Like Kansas, where there’s practically nothing.
And the part of South Dakota that doesn’t include Mount Rushmore.
And like Virginia, where I’ve been so many times that it’s nothing new.
But other than that, all the other states will keep you busy.


I love my family.
But we are kind of weird.
Since we’ve been to so many states,
Every time we go on vacation,
We see if we can get any new ones.
Like two years ago.
We were about 45 minutes from Idaho.
And none of us had ever been there.
So we drove in for breakfast,
Just to say we have been to Idaho.
It was a total of one and a half hours out of our way.
But we didn’t care.
And last year.
We went to Philadelphia.
And on our way there,
We bypassed Philly and went and ate lunch in Delaware.
Again, because we just wanted to get another state.
Yeah, we are kind of weird,
But that’s okay, because we are family and we love each other.

If you asked me what the prettiest place,
In all the states was,
I’d have to say Yellowstone National Park.
It’s in Wyoming, Colorado and Montana.
Words can’t describe its beauty.
The waterfalls,
The rocks,
The animals.
So many animals.
And different ones, too,
Like bighorn sheep,
And owls,
And deer.
Oh the deer.
There are houses right by the edge of Yellowstone.
One house had a bag of fertilizer out back.
The deer sure looked like it had fun playing with that.
And the moose.
We all really, really wanted to see one.
Just one male, with the big antlers.
We got close to seeing a male.
We saw a mama moose and a baby moose in the distance when we were in Colorado.
Not up close, but close enough that I could tell that’s what it was.
I spotted it first.
It was so cool.

Having been to all these states,
I can tell you I like living in PA.
You get to experience all the seasons.
It’s beautiful here.
And it’s not flat.
I don’t like flat,
So I could never, ever live in Kansas.
But I mean,
I’d be okay with living in Florida, or maybe North Carolina or something like that.
But where I end up living depends on so many other things,
Other than the beauty and climate of a state,
That I can’t tell you right now where I’m gonna be in ten years.

So, I could keep telling you what I thought about every state.
What I remember, what I think.
But my words are nothing compared to actually going.
I suggest car rides.
You hit a lot more states in the car than in an airplane.
Yeah, it’s long, and yeah, it’s kind of cramped,
But you get used to it.
And airplanes are kind of cramped too.
Besides, I’ve done it enough that a twelve-hour drive is nothing.
Every year, we drive 12 hours to visit my grandma.
I’ve even done 3 days.
Twice.
And on those vacations, we hit around 17 states each time.
So try it.
You may hate it, but you’ll never know until you try.