I've slowly come to understand how much I've changed since leaving the small, rural area I used to call home. Since venturing out into the big world & continuing my education, I'm constantly confronted by new ways of thinking, new ideas and different sets of beliefs.
I see this as a great Blessing.
I am also disheartened.
Disheartened....... yes, partly because it is a big, scary world, and you realize how crazy it is when you delve into a metropolis........... However, more disheartened because it forces me to confront the narrow thinking often evident in the environment I was raised in.
I saw that quaint community and the warm people who filled it as something nostalgic. A place and time that moved slower than the rest of the world; however, we were all good-hearted, hard-working people. It's not that that has changed per say, but my view on the limited ideas of people confined to such a secluded space definitely has changed.
It saddens me.
I loved that area, but I'm also now more aware of the prejudices that existed, a fear of outsiders, fear of change, and the uninformed thinking of the unknown. I now realize how limiting it is not to have others challenge your ways of thinking and cause you to think outside the box.
I don't know where I'm going with this. I just know I still love my original home, my childhood and the amazing people who shaped me into who I am today. . . . and while I still know plenty of great people there, I also know of statistically more than I'm comfortable with, having extreme, unhealthy perspectives of life, in my opinion.
Of course, who am I to judge another, but on one hand, that's why I'm disheartened, because a large percentage of "them" so unfairly judge others. However, if they never get out of their comfort zone or never have their beliefs challenged, then this shall be another vicious cycle.
I just wish I didn't feel like my home was "home" to that cycle.
