Preparing for recruitment since birth

[Titchou]

You know, it is just so blamed difficult to explain all this to a non-southerner since we grew up with it. Some things you just "know"...and I don't mean to sound snobby here...it's just reality. Southerners are just more "connected" I think...

[TriDeltaSallie]

Originally Posted by Titchou

You know, it is just so blamed difficult to explain all this to a non-southerner since we grew up with it. Some things you just "know"...and I don't mean to sound snobby here...it's just reality. Southerners are just more "connected" I think...

And as a non-southerner I feel both that it is really cool and really sad. The part of me that values family, tradition and community thinks it is an incredibly special blessing to be so connected to them. And there is another part of me that just finds it sad that someone's whole life is basically planned out for them before birth.

I truly don't mean that as a slam. 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.

Again, I mean no disrespect to anyone reading this. It is just a completely different way of looking at life that I find truly fascinating.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie

I truly don't mean that as a slam. 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.

Again, I mean no disrespect to anyone reading this. It is just a completely different way of looking at life that I find truly fascinating.

You don't really think about it. It just is. Just like the way you grew up. It's not something you thought about. It was just the way things were.

[33girl]

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.

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.