YOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Connecticut is the worst Kidding mostly, but living in NY and CT my whole life i didn't truly realize what I was missing! I do miss a lot about CT, but the lifestyle is just so much greater here in the Midwest than it is in CT. Put it this way, I don't even lock the doors when I leave the house. When I lived in South Windsor, I wouldn't let my kids play in the front yard without me out there watching every step they took...here in Nebraska I'm much less concerned about that type of stuff. Halloween as an example...when I was in SW, we had to hit about 50 houses just to get a handful that were even participating. Here in Nebraska, there are entire neighborhoods basically quarantined off to keep the traffic down and every house is decorated and the people are all outside talking to each other, cheering on the kids, and basically making it an awesome experience. There are literally thousands of people wandering about and enjoying each other's company.

Christmas...every house is decorated and many of them have music set to play when you drive up and the lights set to the same...its awesome for the kids!


Its just a different environment, Family is the highest priority and you can tell. Not one time in my time in CT did I feel that the sate actually gave a #*&! about family life. I love it here!

And then you talk about recreational activities: Within 15 minutes of my house I have more "state access" hunting ground than might exist in the entire state of CT I can hunt pheasants, dove, deer, turkey, antelope, waterfowl, you name it virtually any time I want within season and it takes at most an hour to get to quality ground to hunt on. The pheasant hunting is world class and if you haven't chased antelope before as a hunter, thats an experience you MUST have...its simply incredible.

Not all is great about leaving CT/NY as I miss the fishing mostly. I have plenty of places to go, its just not nearly as productive and much more scattered out. A trophy smallmouth here is 3lbs ....this is me rolling my eyes I have plenty of opportunity to get my youngsters out and catching fish, but its just not the same as it is in the northeast! And don't get me started in Saltwater fishing...i miss it every day

Id say the biggest advantage to living in the midwest is the wifey gets to be a mom! She only works one day a week...we took basically a 100K pay cut when we moved to Nebraska, as she was making a fortune as a NICU nurse at Connecticut Children's Hospital. We worked non-stop to barely break even....yes we weren't struggling, but we weren't raking in the $$$. Our combined income was over 200K and we were not living comfortably. Here while we are again not living the high life, we are getting by and she gets to be mom, I get to be dad (coach every sports team, fish and hunt with them on the weekends, etc). In CT we were so consumed with work and the general chaos of life in New England that we barely had time to be a family. In Nebraska, we have dinner together every day, we have every weekend together, and we are focused on family. Its just soooo different.

Would I move back to CT...likely not. Upstate NY...probably, but only because 99% of our family is there. If they weren't there I'm not sure Id have the desire to come back to either state after almost 4 years in the Midwest. I love it here and so do the wife and kids!