Me against 'The World'

Every so often, I get to feeling like the Midwest is completely against me. It makes me sometimes question (again) why I moved here, and more importantly, why am I still here. I get a little homesick for Florida...

It's something I feel like I've fought from day one that I moved to Indiana, especially at my first job where my work ethic was questioned. Now part of that was because my boss was from a foreign country, but others in the company seemed to be annoyed with my more laid back approach to working - I didn't stress over little things like they did. I just grew up in a much more laid back environment. I can get as much, if not more, done than the next guy. It's just not worth stressing over too much at work. So I didn't.

Most recently, however, I found myself in a group conversation where they started completely dogging on the State of Florida. They said it had no culture. They'd never want to raise kids there. Traffic was worse than Chicago (how????). Etc, etc, etc... And for the first time in a very LONG time, I felt offended. I was raised in Florida, and I thought there was plenty of culture and I wouldn't trade growing up there for ANYTHING! I feel like like I was better off because I was raised in a much more tolerant and diverse environment with LOTS of DIFFERENT cultures surrounding me.

It takes a lot to offend me. So much, in fact, that I sincerely cannot remember the last time I was actually offended by something. Unfortunately, this was someone who could ultimately approve/deny something for me, so I bit my tongue, as I find I often do up here. But this led to a pretty crappy weekend for me where I found myself biting my tongue when ever anyone started to dog on my team or question the way I did something. So I was upset pretty much all weekend.

It just seems that sometimes people in the Midwest truly don't believe there's anything good outside of the Midwest. There are a lot of great things outside of the Midwest. The Midwest isn't bad. I have nothing against people from the Midwest... except for the way so many Midwesterners act so superior to every other region of the Country. Not all do. In fact, very few of the ones I know do... probably because if they did, I wouldn't become friends with them. But a lot still do. And around them, I do bite my tongue a lot. Because I don't feel as if I should question the way they live or do things. That's their right. But they should as least respect those who don't choose to live their life that way. You can still be close to your family even if you are a 1000 miles away. In fact, I probably talk to my family a lot more than some of of these Midwesterners who live 100 miles (or less) away from their family do. I think being away from my family has made me appreciate them more and I think we're closer than if I would've stayed in FL or even within an afternoon's drive.

This intolerance to 'outsiders' is what makes me NOT want to raise kids in the Midwest. I want my kids to know there's more out there and there are lots of GOOD things out there, anywhere they want to go. Go explore the world - your family will always be here for you, whether you are close by or far away. I don't want them to go to college in state - go somewhere else. Make new friends. Discover yourself for who you want to be, not how your family defines you growing up. This is how I felt I was raised. And I am glad for this. I may get the argument that if you want your kids to be like this, than raise them like that. But the bottom line is, you can only nurture so much... nature and their surroundings will still have influence.

I apologize if this blog come across as harsh to the Midwest. But the fact is, the Midwest comes off harsh to me at times. And quite frankly, one can take only so much harshness before they break.