- Image by ccseed via Flickr
One of the challenges for many of the students that arrive on the campus of the Family Foundation School is that suddenly they find themselves dropped off “in the middle of nowhere.”
I can identify with the concerns these students experience. When I relocated to this rural community four years ago, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it. I’d lived in cities and suburbia all my life. I just wasn’t sure how my needs would be met.
As in all relationships, both sides emerge changed from what develops. My surprises moving into a tiny rural village were many: quiet is really quiet; it’s really possible to go to grocery store only once every ten days; there’s something about chicken manure on the fields at sundown that really raises a stink.
Many things are special about rural living. Regardless of station in life, the inter-connectivity in the community is palpable. The recognition that taking 5 minutes, or even twenty minutes, to catch up on what the neighbor is doing is a gift many communities have lost sight of. It’s a value I’m glad to have learned.
Agricultural communities have a relationship to the seasons and the weather that comes from generations of observation and activity. This lived connection to the natural world is what many are actually seeking when they pack up the SUV and go on adventure vacations. Without intending it, we now are mindful of seed saving and soil quality, and we eat the produce off our one acre twelve months of the year.
Finally, my co-workers and the dynamic tasks I find myself engaged with at work afford me the finest working conditions of my career.
So, I now realize that the best response to the disoriented new student is delivered with a big smile: “Welcome to nowhere.”
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I can see that you appreciate the nuances of rural living – not all “city transplants” are able to adapt to the fact that quiet is really quiet! I espcially liked your observation about community inter-connectivity. Here’s a true story example: your dog manages to lock both sets of keys in the car — while it’s running. Within a half hour you are back in the car. Why? Because the local mechanic (also the town mayor) cut a new key and drove it 6 miles to where you were stranded. Learning to appreciate the kindness of others is one of the important lessons we try to teach at the Family Foundation School. In the hurry and scurry world many of our students come from, they have forgotten (or never learned) the importance of saying please and thank you, holding open a door, or just smiling and saying “Welcome!”