I grew up in a small town, never flew on an airplane until I was 19. I think from an early age, I knew that the small town life wasn’t really where I would set my anchor and live. My parents probably saw it too, they helped me expand my horizons beyond our little town. I was on statewide boards for our church youth group and met friends from all over the state.
It's hard to believe that the person I am today, who has flown 320k miles, travelled all of our Europe: London, Nice, Monaco, Brussels, Finland, who's lived in London, England, Florida, California, lots of places in MN, grew up in that small town with less than 700 people in our town and a graduating class of 19.
Now that I have my own family, I realize that there are some great things to being from a small town, probably the same things that I disliked when I was young.
· Everyone knows your business, but that taught me accountability.
· In order to field sports teams, band, clubs, choir, almost everyone has to participate. However, I did learn that I wasn’t very sporty early on. But it taught me how to multi-task.
· Money was tight, but it taught me to importance of working and managing a budget.
· We were 30 miles from a larger town, but it taught me the importance of planning ahead and creating lists (thanks mom, this will help with my Black Friday planning).
· Almost everyone went to church, it gave me a strong spiritual back ground and something I knew to some extent I wanted to pass on to my kids.
· All teenagers had a job, I worked 40-60 hours a week (during the summers) for a great family with 6 kids, that even though I don’t see hardly at all anymore, I get to keep up with their lives via Facebook and think about them more often than they would ever know- and taught me such a strong work ethic.
· Almost all of the women I knew worked- my mom, my boss (with the 6 kids), my best friend’s mom… They taught me how to juggle life and to make sure I valued the right things in life. That I made sure I picked a job and a career that would allow me to balance all of it out.
· A solid education- while we didn’t get offered as many perks as my kids may get in a larger town (kindergarten computer and biology labs), I received a solid education in the basics that have helped me get to where I am in my life.
· Great friends- while there are only a few that I still keep in real life contact, there are some I still follow on Facebook and truly care about their lives and their achievements and their kids achievements. And for those that I still keep in contact with, I still consider them some of my best friends and they are the first people I want to tell about my news, good and bad.
So to all my ‘small town’ family, I think I appreciate you much more than I did 20 years ago, and you provide such a great and welcoming place to visit, and a place for my kids to create such great memories during their summer visits. Thank you!
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