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Are you glad you grew up where you did, or would you rather have grown up somewhere else, or under different geographical circumstances?
I lived every day of my childhood in the same Wisconsin farm town. But my dad was from Missouri, and I spent a few weeks every summer in his hometown. Playing with Missouri kids made me feel naive and protected, they were more worldly and adventurous, and had more street smarts and country smarts. They lived more dangerously, had more accidents, grew up faster. They also called adults 'sir' and 'ma'am'.
But I think the place I grew up suited my personality better. It was better for me to grow up in a more ordered environment. My town had no blacks, but they would have been integrated. Missouri towns had blacks, but they were segregated and racist (and still are). But my dad was racist, and I still had to learn tolerance on my own.
Missouri made me a bit of a "southern boy", which served me well when I went to college in Louisiana, which would have been harder for an insulated, provincial northerner.
I grew up in Pueblo, Colorado and I liked where I grew up but not when. What I mean is when I was a kid (the 80's) was when the steel industry collapsed and that was the cities largest employer. So most of my life Pueblo has not grown. Now its projected to grow 11 times more in the net 30 years then it did in the last 50 and if so the MSA would be 260,000 people in 30 years so the kids growing up now will more then likely know a prosperous Pueblo and that for me would have been more fun.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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I grew up in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. To be honest, while being a black guy surrounded by other solid middle class blacks was a great thing, I think that growing up somewhere else more ethnically diverse like Houston or Dallas, would haev helped me more since at age 16 I moved from HR to Northern VA which is extremely diverse and that caught me off guard. Other than that I don't think I regret coming up in Hampton Roads, I lived in a solid neighborhood, had neighbors who I could count on when I needed help, can't ask for more.
Victorville began to slowly lose some of its rural fervor back when my stepdad moved us out here back in '87.
With more of a slightly urbanized lifestyle out here, I'm guessing he wanted us kids to grow up to be more "city-prepped" than country-style so-to-speak.
Being born in a farm area of Illinois and himself coming from a similar part of Indiana, he was more than used to, but getting tired of the slower-paced/predictable lifestyle living in a country area offered.
This was also prevalent due to the fact that we lived in places like Rolla, ND and Flagstaff, AZ for only short periods of time.
Unfortunately for him and my mom, the city-life never quite appealed to me and now I tell them I probably would've matured a lot quicker had we stayed in a more rural-centric state of the southwest.
Hiking, shooting, cave-exploring, camping, star-gazing, and a small populous are things I've grown to love.
The only thing I probably due that's urban-related is go to a gym to workout and see movies.
I dont think I would have minded growing up in the mountains of Tennessee or Virginia, but Im happy that I grew up in Louisiana. It has been a lot of fun and my family is from all around the area. When I was younger I used to think it sucked here because of the heat and humidity asnd lack of mountains, but I came to appreciate what Louisiana does have. I honestly think Im where I belong.
I would have rather grown up in the Iron Range or Duluth. The Eastside of Saint Paul was a pretty cool place to grow up though.
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