[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by senior citizen

Would anyone care to wager a guess why oftentimes "kids" from very small towns, surrounded by nothing but rural landscapes, choose to strike off on their own at a younger age, travel the world after college, generally seeking adventure & a change from the same old, same old careers that their parents might have expected them to follow in......?

Case in point, all of their cousins, raised in New Jersey, chose safe careers while remaining in their birth state......raising their children in the "suburbs"........while most of those in our small town, after graduating top universities, chose to enter the military in order to attend medical school; see the world, etc..........or else chose careers where they travel extensively (not the typical nine to five) , chose to return to "city living" as opposed to living in the "burbs"...........also they choose to vacation "abroad" not "down the shore" like their cousins.

This change all occurred during their high school/university/grad school years.

We are thinking (in a lightbulb moment) that the ones in the metro areas saw a lot of "diversity" whereas ours living in the small rural towns "seek out that diversity" by leaving their home state .........although some do return to raise their families, after becoming nostalgic for the good old days. Most make a life for themselves elsewhere. It's all GOOD.

Re the "diversity" when our foreign exchange students would arrive in our small town, our high schoolers would literally put them on a pedestal as very very special guests. Plus, in their adult lives, they've formed lifelong bonds with those of other nationalities/cultures/races.

I'll have to open a dialogue with my 43 year old son when he returns east this August for his 25th high school reunion............seems like yesterday it was ours.

The world is definitely a smaller place as our kids' friends took jobs in Japan , Singapore, the Netherlands, Africa, Europe, plus others too numerous to recall at the moment...........raising their families abroad.........plus those in the military around the world. Also, of course, those who just resettled all over the United States....
　

Going to foreign countries might be for more reasons than seeking diversity, otherwise they could have gone to a metro area like New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles. Perhaps they were seeking adventure on a larger scale.