I went through something similar last year, had to work in Erie, PA for about 5 months and that place sucked. Hard. It's like a mini-version of every city in the Midwest with an awful lake and even worse people. Don't forget about the part where you try to have deeper conversations with people or explain why their vanilla culture is just that, vanilla and boring as all hell. Then you just get blank looks and a short sentence answer because it doesn't matter to them. You'll get through this and at least you might get a different perspective out of it or a fuller understanding of the Midwest. Also, JTHipster I'm not sure if this is your thing or not but BRKfest is happening in Cincy in July and should be a lot of fun.
That's the worst. Absolute worst moment. I dunno, I guess at this point I just look at what I had before moving here and realize that I was intellectually goddamn spoiled. Even the shitty community college I went to while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do was totally fine. One day after class, one or two of my friends took me to a new restaurant (well, new to me), and we ended up having a discussion - read argument - about the inevitability of technological innovation. They might have been dead fucking wrong but when I made a point they would argue against it if they disagreed. And I'll be sure to give BRKfest a look over. I'm hoping that I meet other people who are similarly sick of this area while in college, but so far nothing. People will openly admit that there's nothing to do, and then when I try and make something to do, they just go "ehhhhh."Don't forget about the part where you try to have deeper conversations with people or explain why their vanilla culture is just that, vanilla and boring as all hell. Then you just get blank looks and a short sentence answer because it doesn't matter to them.