“I left Nebraska because I had just graduated from college, had a decent job more or less related to my degree, but I felt old, like that’s it, now I’m supposed to do what the average American college grad does — settle down, buy a house and get married — especially in the Midwest. But I wasn’t ready for that yet.”

Ali Ribeiro went to Spain in 1999 to study abroad. She graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln soon after, but Spain lured her back for another visit. A boy worth getting to know met her on that odyssey, and soon she was more than a visitor.

Spain became home, and the excitement of new surroundings and grad school kept the boredom away.

It seems a splendid thing to be young and in Europe, and trust her, it was and still is on the better days. She’ll always love Spain, but the newness is gone. Even in Salamanca, another place can look better.

By the end of this year, she and her boyfriend, who is in med school, hope to return to Omaha and settle down.

Sure, there are things she doesn’t miss about Nebraska. The e-mail says so:

“Ignorant or close-minded people that think their way is the best and don’t accept anyone different than them. Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that things and people aren’t inferior to your way of thinking, but rather, just different from yours. … Some Nebraskans have (never) really been exposed to anything different than what they know, and therefore the mentality is what it is.”

But she misses Omaha’s Old Market. “I think it has soul to it.”

And she misses things others might consider stupid: road trips heading west, stops in North Platte, pictures in front of fiberglass buffaloes, a stop at a rodeo, things very much Nebraska.

“I like these things just as much as snorkeling in the Canary Islands, or going out for tapas.”

She supposes it’s natural for people to complain about where they’re from, to want to leave and explore. “But I think they convince themselves that the grass is greener on the other side and everything on that other side has to (be) superior, and everything in Nebraska is inferior.”

Sure, if you’re of liberal mind, Europe seems more progressive on such issues as capital punishment (they find it incredibly inhumane) and sexual orientation (it’s almost a non-issue in Spain).

Then again, progressiveness comes and goes with each topic. Take racism. Ribeiro sometimes hears racial slurs in Spain one might have heard in Nebraska 50 years ago.

Salamanca is a lot like Lincoln, she says. It’s a university town. It’s surrounded by agriculture. But one thing the people there do a better job of is embracing their youth, Ribeiro writes.

“Nebraska, and probably the Midwest in general, needs that … I don’t think we need to instigate that mentality of, ‘OK, you’re 22 now. Get married, settle down.’ I think at that age you should learn to be responsible and independent, but you don’t have to follow the stereotype.”

Ribeiro is thankful for the route she took. Had she never left Nebraska, she likely wouldn’t appreciate it as much as she does now. “You grow up and realize Nebraska has its culture, its history, but it’s our own. You have to make it your own. It’s just not the same kind as New York or Europe would have, but that’s OK.”