Skip to main content

Recognizing my own prejudices and standing up for myself

It took until today for the 'glow' of this rural lifestyle to darken a little. I forget that with the good comes the bad, and I was called out for my 'offensive' slogan on my waterbottle and my planner both last week and this.  As a result, they've been given makeovers of sorts, but just for the summer. The f-bomb is not exactly welcome around here I'm learning. And that's okay. There is a place and time for everything, and while I would have loved to declare why those slogans should be displayed proudly, there are times in your life when you just have to bite your lip and swallow your pride, your creativity, your uniqueness, in whatever form it takes. For me, it was a sticker on my water bottle and planner. Maybe this is just part of what it means to be 'professional'. I just hope every time it happens it doesn't make me want to cry, because it's a shitty feeling to happen over and over again. Hence, the makeover.

On a related note, I think internally I'm getting my own sort of makeover as well, realizing how many prejudices that I had about rural Kansas and didn't realize until they were continuously proven wrong. How appreciative I am of these moments! I think it will make me better equipped to stand up for those that live here when I am living in the big city and this summer feels like some distant memory. It's also making me realize how ugly some of my thoughts had been. I generally consider myself to be a positive person, with a bright outlook for the future and for the most part pretty hopeful. Of course, school has taught me that most people have an agenda, nothing is usually as good as it appears to be, and that everyone is flawed in some way. You can't fight a battle alone, you can't expect good things to come without the bad, and surprises are found where you least expect them to be hiding. I may be a good person in general, but I didn't realize that I have a lot of internal 'revising' to do, if you will. It's kind of like every time you travel abroad and you start to see things with new eyes. I look around me, and having once seen a podunk town of less than 4,000, I now see opportunity and a slow pace of life.

Driving all across North Central Kansas also gives me new thoughts, a lot of them depressing because I'm surrounded mostly by different commodity crops. But there are small glimmers of hope: sitting on the beach at Kanopolis Lake and hearing mostly conversations in Spanish around me; talking to rural economic development directors about innovative farmers; growing food in my neighbor's yard; 25 cent day at the Economy Shop, where every article of clothing is only one quarter. :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Four: Bigger Pots

Today was different than the rest of the conference in many regards.  First of all, about 50% of the scheduled sessions were cancelled because the presenters failed to actually show up to the conference in the first place!  This was especially unnerving, as I wanted to listen to quite a few about biofuel and constructed wetlands, but they were all cancelled.  So me, being my usual studious self, found a seat outside to study up for my entomology test.  I didn't feel like subjecting myself to more of the micro-discussions, because it is just too far out of my element.  I don't even feel like I can be a part of the conversation because doing so would require me actually understanding the basic concepts.  Graphs can get complicated, let me tell you.  I went to one session yesterday where the researcher spent five of his fifteen allotted minutes explaining the various features of his graph.  It made sense by the end, but geez. The field trip was a...
1 comment
Read more

I Made It!!

So getting around is actually not as hard as I thought it was!  At least in America.  International can get a bit tricky, but I can proudly say that I used the Metro Rail in Washington, D.C. without (too many) issues, and arrived at my homestay abode without a scratch! I arrived this evening around five and talked with everyone while they came and went...I met people from northern California, Seattle, West Virginia, and St. Louis.  It's soo cool to hear about everyone's struggles with their congressmen and what they're doing to communicate effectively.  I also wish that I had as much experience as them!  There have been some vocab words flying across the table, like externalities, yellow dog democrat, and others that make me feel very young and inexperienced; that being said, I love spending hours just listening to everyone talk!  It's so much better than at school or with my friends sometimes, when the conversation is limited to a certain array of topic...
1 comment
Read more

The beginning of my summer adventure

So...I wanted to see where I had left off the last time I posted, and didn't realize that it was all the way back in February!  That means that you missed out on my April visit day adventure, my whirlwind of graduation, saying goodbyes at the farm, my apartment search in Minneapolis, and my offer/acceptance of a summer internship in Beloit, KS. I'll keep some of the back story abbreviated because I think that some of my best writing will focus on (strangely enough) the beauty of living in rural Kansas. I, of all people, having grown up in Lawrence and felt that it was way too small for my liking, am falling in love with the calm and relaxed nature of small-town living. But first! For the catch up on other life happenings, and how I got to Beloit in the first place. 1. Summer internship applications Applied for one with the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, one in Alaska related to conservation, another in Singapore, and of course one through K-State Research and Exten...
1 comment
Read more