I was talking with a friend the other day who had recently returned from a trip to South Carolina and Georgia. The woman who hosted her in Georgia made an interesting observation about Minnesotans.  She said that she can easily tell when someone is from Minnesota because they say “yet” a lot.  Personally, I grew up in California and I’ve noticed a lot of things that Minnesotans do differently, or say differently, but this one had somehow slipped by me.  I did, however, find it an simple phenomena to explain.  The reason we say “yet” a lot is because we are a hopeful people.

Let me show you some examples of our hope. “I’m not skinny, YET.” “I haven’t been to Hawaii, YET.” “I haven’t eaten at that new restaurant, YET.” You see, hopeful! This kind of talk encourages us to get up every day because there is always hope that whatever we haven’t done or seen, is still going to happen, or at least we think it will!

I say embrace it! Today, I’m going to embrace the word YET in a way every Minnesotan can relate to – “Spring has not come, YET.” It will though – there are rays of hope. Maybe next week, just not yet.