I’ll admit it. I’m relatively new to the 612.

I came here my junior year of college as a transfer student, wide-eyed and star-struck by all the lights and sounds. I grew up south of Rochester…in the country…in a town with one stoplight. Let’s just say it doesn’t take much to amaze me.

After my two years at the University of Minnesota, I still didn’t really know a lot about Minneapolis. When people asked where a good place to go was, I could rattle off the great places in Dinkytown…and that was about it.

Then, I got hired by Meet Minneapolis to be the crafter of words. Funny thing about Meet Minneapolis: they represent the city of Minneapolis. The people that work here are all walking encyclopedias, filled with every fact ever known about the city. And here I was, asking where Hennepin Ave was and what the Holidazzle Parade was.

Thank God for Google searches.

But, as I was tasked with writing more and more things, I started to learn more and more about the city. Bit by bit, day by day I built up a working knowledge of what Minneapolis had to offer. I went out to experience things like the Uptown Art Fair , biking around Lake Calhoun and setting my tastebuds ablaze at Chino Latino so I could better write about the city. And as the time passed, I realized something:

Minneapolis is huge.

There’s so much to do in this city! I feel like I’ve done a lot of things here, but then I get handed a task like writing descriptions for all 500+ of our partners and I realize how little I truly know of Minneapolis. And not only do we have a lot of things to do, but we’ve got a lot of DIFFERENT things to do. Like art? Hit up the Walker Art Center. Want to see a Broadway play? Head over to the Guthrie. Feeling hungry? We have a street literally named “Eat Street.” Four professional sports teams, lakes galore, bike trails everywhere and I haven’t even BEGUN to scratch the surface of what there is to do here. Granted, I’m no Minneapolis Albert Einstein like Bill Deef, but I’m getting there. And you know what?

It’s awesome. I love it.

Keep the tractor and dirt roads. I’m about the lights and sounds now.