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I saw this article at Kansas.com:

Can transplants really adjust to Kansas living?

I'm sorry to admit it, but I suffer from that famous Wichita inferiority complex. Over the years, when The Eagle would interview potential hires from California or an East Coast metropolis, I would always cringe.

I hated to think about the horror on their faces when they stepped off the plane.

I imagined them looking around the vacant airport, wondering if there'd been a bomb threat.

I imagined them hailing one of Wichita's two taxis and riding through the uniform, treeless flatness toward our teeny tiny skyline.

I imagined them jumping out of the taxi, sprinting back to the airport, fighting their way past security and demanding to be returned to civilization -- to subways and oceans and Ethiopian food.

Of course, having lived in Kansas most of my life, I know that it's a fine place to live.

We have (almost) all the things you need to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle -- minus the traffic and pollution.

It's cheap to live here, and once you get used to what we don't have (subways, oceans, Ethiopian food), you don't miss it all that much.

But I've always wondered if outsiders could grasp this. Could lifelong big-city folk ever adjust to our slower pace and more limited selections? Would they implode from culture shock? Or would they learn to love it?

I was reminded of this a few nights ago when watching "Big Brother," the popular summer reality show that just concluded on CBS.

The show was recapping the romance between two of this season's contestants -- Haysville resident Jessica Hughbanks and Eric Stein, a born-and-bred New York Citian.

The segment focused on a conversation between the two in which Eric was contemplating relocating to Kansas to be with Jessica.

At the end of the conversation, Eric composed a pro/con list.

Pros of moving to Kansas:

1. Jessica's there

2. Things are cheaper there

3. Nope, that's it.

Cons of moving to Kansas:

1. Everything else

Ouch!

But who am I to complain? As much as I love New York City, I think I'd have a very hard time living there.

Still, I'd like to hear about this from the perspective of someone who's lived it.

If you're a big-city transplant to Kansas, successful or not, tell me your story about the adjustment process. Write me at dneil@wichitaeagle.com.

And be honest -- I promise not to be offended.

That's what an inferiority complex is all about.