O' Pioneers!

I currently reside in a place called Puyallup. On the surface it appears to be your typical suburb, a growth on the larger city of Tacoma, but the longer I’m here, the more I realize the surface is just that. It’s window dressing. I was fooled because it has all the same familiar store-fronts as any burb, but unlike them, this place is older. Puyallup was a pioneer town founded in 1877. It’s an American small town and this new face that it has is something I think is probably occurring in many small town across the country. The popularity and recognition of the corporate monsters have won the trust of the people. There are new housing communities sprouting up all over, in former cow pastures and cleared forests, but unlike so many burbs, the people who live here have so for generations, they
Maybe its odd that I’m so surprised by this. Maybe growing up in a suburb of Phoenix was a truly unique experience. It was and is very rare to find people there whose family tree goes back more than a generation there, maybe two. Modern day pioneer towns? I don’t know.
But I do know that a good majority of the people I’ve met here are from here and plan on keeping it that way. They’re happy where they are. Or is it content? I don’t understand that way of thinking. I always wanted to get out. Ever since I can remember. But then, I still do. I can’t think of any place I truly want to “settle”. Maybe its just easier and more logical to just settle for wherever you are. People used to move for food and shelter, but if you can find that wherever you go, how do you decide? I guess the next thing is family, but my family is all over. So do I live somewhere central, where I can get to all of them in the most equal amount of time, or just pick one and commit?
It is nice to be around family. I haven’t really been near any of them since I went to college and its nice to reacquaint myself with them. So far that has been the most rewarding part of my upheaval from Chicago. It was always a part of the plan in the back of my mind. It just turns out it was more important than I thought. They drive me crazy, but I see myself in them and that is kind of nice. I keep hoping that figuring out where I came from will help me figure out where I’m going.