If I had a dollar for every time that I heard someone say, “I hate Kansas,” I might have enough money to build us our very own Kansas ocean (which, after someone finishes saying they hate Kansas, is usually what they wish we had).

I’ll admit it, every now and then I get frustrated by the seemingly limited entertainment options available. But, if you really think about it, Kansas isn’t so bad after all.

We’ve got all four seasons — we get to play in the snow in the winter and can easily get a fantastic tan in the summer. By and large, we’re natural-disaster free. Hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes really aren’t on our radar, and we don’t have as many tornado scares as Hollywood would have you think (knock on wood).

I’m a resident of Stilwell. Every single time I tell someone how to get to my house, my street number’s proximity to the 200s will, without fail, make eyes widen and immediately spark the question, “People live out there?”

Yes.

Yes they do.

And let me tell you, it’s the best of both worlds. Drive 15 minutes north and you land on 135th Street, the center of south Johnson County entertainment. Drive five minutes south and you’re in the middle of a proud community, founded in the 1870s and named after a train conductor. Driving south on State Line or Metcalf will give you some of the most relaxing scenery you’ll find. The community is safe and not claustrophobic, as some cities can seem.

Stilwell, due to its lack of elected government representation, is not an official city. It’s a “small unincorporated community” inside of Aubry Township. Overland Park has attempted to annex us on many occasions — but residents love Stilwell the way it is too much to let Overland Park succeed.

There aren’t subdivisions that stick two houses onto one acre. Locals joke that the four-way stop at 199th Street and Metcalf is “downtown Stilwell,” due to the fact that it’s got the closest thing we have to a stoplight: a blinking red light to signify a four-way stop.

Looking up and down 199th Street, you’ll see Stilwell Station, a gas station so widely used by residents that on almost any given trip, you’ll see someone you know; a Shell station, two banks, a veterinarian’s office, a brand-new hardware store, a used-car dealership (with approximately four cars sitting out front) and a KCP&L building. There isn’t a Starbucks or department store in sight.

In elementary school, we took a field trip to “Old Stilwell,” the place where the community was first founded in the 1800s. We walked to get there. There is a building that still has hitching rings for horses out in front, a church that’s falling down (yet is still used) and cellars are unattached to houses and reached through a trap door in the yard (Wizard of Oz, anybody?).

This world is moving fast. Technology is changing all the time. Stilwell is moving with it, too — one of my favorite one-lane gravel roads was recently paved and widened and more and more crop fields are being sold to developers. But at the same time, it finds balance in preservation of the past. As I’m looking toward college, I’m going to be sad to leave it behind.

Whenever I want to unwind, I drive south to the Johnson County/Miami County line (about a five-minute trip) or just around Stilwell to see what there is to see. It’s hard to be stressed when you’re driving down a road with no painted lines, houses, crazy drivers or cops lurking around corners.

So the next time you have an even slightly bad day and blame it on Kansas and its “boring-ness” (which doesn’t even make sense, if you think about it) consider what you’re saying. Kansas, especially this area, is so different that there are always new things to explore. Cities and suburbia all essentially look the same after a while, but the area between 179th and 215th is its own world.