I’m Corey Fields. I’ve lived in the Midwest my entire life, and if you know anything about this part of the country, you know it’s built on a foundation of common sense and a “get it done” attitude. I have somehow become middle-aged and see the world getting a whole lot weirder and accepting things like greed, mass surveillance, wasteful pollution, and blatant corruption.
As a geriatric millennial, I grew up a ’90s kid’ and watched cartoons like Captain Planet, remember headlines about Y2K, watched 9/11 happen while in US History class, and the Iraq War started while I was in homeroom. I went to a college that looked like the ones in movies with a big, grassy quad, and tried to get a full-time job during the 2008 financial crisis. With all that those events and everything since then, I’ve gained quite a bit of experience. As part of my leveling up, I want to share my thoughts.
A lot of what I write about comes from living with it, not reading about it:
- 40+ years in the Midwest. Tornado sirens, card games, fall harvests, and road trips across the region are just regular life here. The Midwest Facts posts are about places and traditions around the region, and I share my own connection to them when I have one.
- Rooftop solar since 2022. Several years of Midwest seasons with panels on my own roof, which is where my opinions on solar come from.
- Driving an EV since 2023. Midwest winters included.
- Homeowner and gardener. Gardening, composting, yard work with battery tools, and keeping utility bills down are regular chores for me, and the product recommendations here are things I actually own and use.
When a post covers facts, news, or anything outside my own experience, I link to the sources I used so you can check them yourself. When it’s opinion, I’ll make that clear too.
I started Opes for the Future as a way to keep some of that old-school wisdom alive and pass it on to the next generation. Think of it as a modern-day almanac—a place for plain-spoken thoughts on how to work hard, enjoy what we’ve got today, and strive to make the world better than we found it. Like Poor Richard’s Almanac, I believe we need to use our heads today while we dream about tomorrow. I am interested in justice, technology, innovation, sustainability, and more topics that will be explored along with my Midwest pride in Opes for the Future. (a play on “Hopes for the Future” with the Midwestern expression “ope”, which you might say without realizing it when you bump into something.).
Don’t just fly-over this site. Stick around a while and oh, pass the ranch!
