Construction Workers

Over the past two weeks, I have realized just how different Minnesota and Wisconsin really are. I’ve never lived away from home (Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, a small-ish town just outside of Milwaukee), so maybe it’s just that everywhere is different from everywhere else. Besides the obvious differences (the talk about preparing myself for winter, not having my mom around whenever I need her, dorm life, etc.), there is one other major difference: the construction workers. I’ve lived in Wisconsin for 18 years. In those 18 years, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen as much construction get done as I have over the past two weeks, on Washington Avenue. In Milwaukee (and everywhere else on the planet, I’m pretty sure), there is a lot of construction. Back in Wisconsin, you can look almost anywhere and see construction sites. But, the majority of these construction sites will have no people working on them. It seems that there is never any work getting done, and then one day, magically, the Marquette Interchange is finished. However, here, every weekday on my way to class, even my one at 8 am, the construction workers are out there, hard at work, moving around dirt and then spreading it out. Obviously I don’t know exactly what they are doing, but it’s clear to see that work is being done towards putting in the light rail. I know something like construction seems like an insignificant culture change, but for me, it was just enough. It was just enough for me to really understand that I’m not at home anymore, and that regardless of the fact that Wisconsin and Minnesota are right next to each other, they are actually different. Though I’ve only been here about two weeks, I can already tell that being surrounded by the culture here is going to change me, for the better.