The mold I am referring to is this: You grow up in a small town, you go to school, you graduate and then you go away so you can have a successful life.
In Nebraska, this is a frightening statistic and, really, a tactical error.
Recently, my hometown hosted the 2011 Connecting Young Nebraskans Summit and later I was asked to speak a bit on why I live in Nebraska and my ideas to grow the state for the Nebraska Renaissance Project. When sitting down to think about it, I couldn’t believe it, but for the first time in my life, I couldn’t think of any other place I’d rather be on a permanent basis. There are many places I have thought about living and I’ve tried to be anywhere else. I love to travel, but I keep being pulled “home” to reside.
When I was downsized in 2009, I moved back to my hometown of West Point, pop. approx. 3660. The cost of living seemed so much less expensive and it seemed like everyone I knew that lived there also got to spend more time with their families and actually enjoyed their lives. I spent a good deal of time traveling in my previous job, I was burned out, felt my work was meaningless and didn’t want to miss another minute with my then 5 and 2 year old. When I got back home, however, my options seemed as limited as I felt they would be when I was 18 years old.
At least, that is what my first impressions were. There was not full-time work that justified the cost of childcare, even though it was admittedly a third of what I used to spend. I no longer possessed the capital to purchase or start a business. So, I created my own flexible-schedule by working several part-time jobs instead. I dug my heels in, took on what work I could find and started connecting.
The most amazing thing started to happen as a result of my work in all these part-time places in a small town. Something I never experienced in structured networking groups I had belonged to in the past. Just by talking to people and letting them know that I had moved back and what type of work I was looking for, I started receiving phone calls to see if I was open to helping, consulting and coordinating. Almost as if people were trying to do what they could to keep me here.
I also learned to find the value in being informed and knowing who’s who in a small community. If I can’t help, I can give them the phone number, website, email address and maybe even the Twitter handle of at least one person who can.
You can only give and receive this kind of treatment in rural Nebraska.
I also have a vested interest in making where I live a cool place to live.
And so two weeks ago, as I stood for a family photo with nearly 200 of my closest relatives. (Just a tiny 3 generation lunch!) I felt the awe of not only having that opportunity to be with these people, to enjoy all of our personalities, but to realize we are the offspring of some very successful farmers and cattle feeders, and later entrepreneurs in manufacturing and design. If everyone could have made it to the gathering, we may have outnumbered the population of the town we were in.
I considered what it would look like had most of us not left to urban areas of the state and out of state. Some of us have come back, but what would Snyder or Dodge, NE look like had we all (and generations of other large, catholic rural families) stayed there and had a vested interest in creating the community they wanted to live in? I’m guessing the post office and grocery stores wouldn’t be closing.
I think the main thing we that have returned have come to learn is, in rural communities you can have a big impact and an active role in creating the world in which you want to live in. You can have a voice and won’t get lost in the crowd unless you want to.
My ideas to grow this state are simply this: Mentor our youth, invest in and energize our emerging leaders, believe in the viability of our communities ourselves, and encourage proactive, creative and innovative thinking, and REAL civil discourse about our future. “This isn’t way we’ve done it before,” should not be in our vocabulary when we’re discussing our future.
Living in rural Nebraska has not limited my life. In fact, my resume has grown and doubled in experiences since I’ve been here nearly 3 short years. I’ve had the opportunity to do work I’m passionate about, and be involved in making a difference. Things I had no idea were so important to me and have forever changed the course of my life. “Small town, small mind, small ideas”? Not on your life.
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