Medina, Minnesota, “a prosperous, suburban edge City” is the place I call home. Now, living in the 82,575-person college town of Bloomington, Indiana, makes my quaint little hometown of 5,221 seem irrelevant. Being away from home for the first time in my life makes me appreciate the state of Minnesota more than I ever expected; I can even say that I miss my little area of the world, Medina. Initially when presented with this project I thought I would focus on Minneapolis, a city of 400,070, because people here in Indiana have actually heard of it. Medina seemed too small, but after looking at it during Thanksgiving break, I realized that it truly was a microcosm of Minnesota and how unique some of its characteristics are. There are three important aspects of Medina that once looked at, gives a good overview of what the city of Medina is like as a whole, and these aspects are migration, political geography and environment. Migration because the idea of home, and settling in an area is an integral part of the Minnesota way of life. Although there isn’t a quantified statistic to represent the retention rate of citizens in Minnesota, many people who live there, have family history in Minnesota and plan on staying or ending up back Minnesota due to the its unique lifestyle. Political geography, because it is connected to the way of life, it’s important to know the type of people and their values in a state and how that has an effect on the area. Environment, because many
