Country meets town, and the result is tormenting

My parents met 27 years ago at a party. This, in itself, is not at all unusual. What is unusual is how my parents ended up at the same party.

My father grew up on a farm. He spent every summer waking at the break of dawn to milk the cows, work the horses and man the tractors. When school started he did all that, caught the bus to school, and then did more of that before bed. My father didn’t really have a social life--if he had time to fool around he wasn’t working hard enough--and the only friends he had were from Gym Khana (if you don’t know what that is, just understand it’s a farm-kid thing).

My mother, on the other hand, grew up in town, far from the struggles of her farm-born peers. She spent her summers at “the lake”, waterskiing, suntanning and enjoying her free time. Her main focus was school, which she excelled in, and where she also formed all kinds of friendships--some of which are still in place today.

And so, for my father, a country-bumpkin rig hand, and my mother, a somewhat spoiled city kid, to be attending the same party at the same time, fate had to be in play.

Now, as much as this history amuses me, it also troubles me a bit. Because, from this unusual meeting at a party came marriage and then, uh, me. (That’s not the troubling part).

The troubling part is that I, a by-product of country meeting town at a party, have no idea where I belong in the world. Part of me shares my mother’s love of being pampered, and would willingly spend the rest of my days shopping and having my nails done. However, the other part of me shares my father’s urges to wade through the muck or saddle a horse and ride as far away from everyone and everything as I possibly can.

When I’m in the city, I miss the country; and when I’m in the country, I dream of the city. Leaving one to go to the other always kills me inside, and as soon as I’ve arrived at one place I’m arranging the next trip back.

So for now, I leave my heart in the country to work in the city, and thank my lucky stars that I still have the country to escape to when the city gets to be too much to handle.