by Jennifer L. Thompson

Created on: January 27, 2010

Where you live can influence who you are in so many ways. This has been evidenced to me throughout the course of this lifetime. The evidence has been shown through living in large cities, small towns, vacation communities, rural communities, and farm communities in different areas of the U.S. These have included Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, Iowa, and Illinois.

Along with these things, visits with relatives in other areas of the country, and their experiences in living in those places have also shown this to be true, as well as my own work-related and extended travel to other areas of the U.S. and to Canada. The study of a local populace in any other country in the world will also reveal this same thing.

There are innumerable factors that combine to make us who we are, yet, when looking at how the place we live can influence it, there are several factors that stand out above the rest. These will include:

* History

The history of any area that you live in will have an influence on who you are. This can be in the larger historical sense, as with the history of the deep South, or it can be in a smaller, more localized sense, such as living in a farm area that has a 4H club with a history of blue-ribbon cattle. Either way, it will still help define who you are.

* Traditions

Many areas are fraught with traditions. These can be associated with many things, largely including its culture, and again, its history. Along with these things, the weather will also have an influence. Ancient traditions will mix with modern day ones in many areas, making its people unique to an area. A traditional snowmobile/poker run that occurs every winter up north will simply not happen at all in the deep South. The bountiful New Year's traditions seen in many large cities will often pass by unnoticed in very small towns. Yet, these, too, will still have an influence.

* Government

The government of the place that you live will obviously have great influence over who you are. It has many sub-areas that also create influence. For instance, someone living in the United States will be influenced by American government, individual state government, county, and city governments, thus influencing its local people as unique to an area. Other areas of the world have governments that will not allow certain rights. For instance, in some parts of the world, women are not allowed to speak out, and any woman who does can often acheive either fame or death in doing so. This type

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>