Quote:
Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie
But for someone outside of the south, it really is both fascinating and hard to comprehend. It's hard to imagine going to school and camp and college and socializing with the same group of people my entire life. I think of college as a time to meet new people and explore new opportunities. To have life so mapped out at such a young age just seems to somehow miss some of the joy of the unexpected and new. I think the part of me that likes new challenges and opportunities to explore would find the structure to be incredibly confining.
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As others have said, this is hardly a Southern only thing. I'm from a very small town that is anything but Southern, and I saw things like this growing up, with my eyes being more opened when I got to college. We had a Christmas cotillion where women were "presented" the Christmas after their HS graduation. For a lot of people, college wasn't a chance for new opportunities or friends. It was someplace to go to get your degree and get out so you could come back to town. marry your HS sweetheart who you've stayed with all through college, and have a more white collar job, usually teaching in the school you graduated from or lawyering in your dad's firm. This is shown by the amount of people who transferred from Pitt main to the BRANCH of Pitt that was closer to town, so they could come home every weekend or even commute. (You usually do it the other way around.)
The staying close to your family part is nice, and it's nice to be around people you've known all your life and be able to go to the lawyer, doctor etc and not think twice about trusting them. However, it comes with a price. People think they're entitled to know all the facts of your life and don't understand how this could be offensive. If you do anything outside the pale, it's going to get talked about and not in a very discreet manner.
So anyway...it's not just a Southern thing.
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