multitude of meanings

my sister (who is way smarter than I) thinks i am a snob...maybe i am; maybe not. no one forced me (in the seventh grade) to sit by myself in front of the tv on sunday afternoons to watch greek plays. no one forced me to like classical music or to read satre. or to take baby physics after college to get a small, tiny idea of how the universe worked. (i don't do math well).

for most of my life i have lived in a university town where there were a lot of people who liked to study, mostly not the the same things that i was interested in, but certainly there was intersection. there were people working on their phd who also worked as grocery clerks to help pay their way, not because they thought it was their end job.

hence, it is taking some adjustment living in a community where going to college is not the understood goal of most of the households. my sister and i knew we were going to college from a very early age--it just was in our house even though our dad did not graduate from college and my mom only had 2 or 3 years of college.

in this community the majority of households consider high school as the end goal; if you a girl the end goal mght be getting pregnant. Since education is not high on the list, my afternoon interludes with third and fourth graders is much different that my interaction with students in the college town even when taking into consideration the age difference. i use to teach seventh and eighth graders.

i had a new student today in my little group and he is even more distant from my life than the others. he came from the south and believes that if you are under twelve you can hunt with out a license plus he can hunt any animal. i also learned that he (his family, i suppose) believes that the government owns all the property.

i knew when i moved here i the only people with higher education would be the doctors, dentists, teachers, and lawyers and maybe a few others (game warden, banker), but for the most part the hightest level of education is high school. i really haven't tried to make friends outside of my family; but probably i should-- although the process is sure to frought with stress. i have to be careful in picking topics of conversation.

i truly belived GOD puts people in places. i don't know what my purpose is here. maybe it is his purpose for me to learn humility, graciousness, patience, and acceptance of others.