Where you grow up says a lot about you. So much that it is often one of the first questions strangers ask upon meeting. It instantly gives a person a little peek inside of your world. Growing up in an urban, rural, area you automatically get the title of, ‘country,' 'ghetto,' or anything of a derogatory nature; when really... we're the whole package.
Second round playoff game, 2014-15. ( I'm on the far left.)
“It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts.” - Ella Fitzgerald
What They Don't See
We are limited… like, a lot! We do not have multiple resources for jobs, fresh food- hell, even people! We are forced to drive twenty-minutes to an hour to work, the local Walmart, or to just casually sip on a watered down margarita from Chili’s. Many times, all small towns have are:
The towns ‘grab-n-go’ food spots: Where we all go to get a quick home-cooked/southern meal.
The local park/The Pj’s : Where all of the summer fights, dice games, and breeding ground for the little meet-ups with your "lil yea’" happens.
High School: The main source of entertainment and fun for small towns.
Literally.
THAT. IS. IT!
Now, somehow, with the little-to-no resources we do have and the hell we go through everyday (to do the bare minimum) we do not complain, WE HUSTLE! We are the original innovators. When blindly hit with complications in our life - left and right, up and down- we do not run because, like...where would we go?
We have no one but ourselves and each other in this small town. We all understand each other struggles so we help each other out. Besides, we are all related somehow, anyway. 🤷🏾♀️🤷🏿♂️
Your neighbors aren’t just your neighbors. The coaches are not just your coaches. Your mom is not only your mom. We’re all family.
*Five years later
Igno[RANT]
No one ever knows where your hometown is located. Due to this, you spend five minutes trying to tell people where you are from, (just to tell them the most familiar city nearby) and get ridiculed with shallow questions like, “Do you live on an actual farm?" "What do y'all do all day?”
Bitch, I'll tell you what we do ... we ride horses until the cows come home and spit tobacco into a coffee cup. YEEHAW hoe!!!
What WE Don’t See
'Taint-ers' and Painters
Every community is separated by two types of influencers: ‘Tainters’ and Painters.
The ‘tainters’ are disastrous, opportunist, and selfish; all the while, the painters are noble, dependable & selfless. The deportment of the two is drastically different. ‘Tainters’ are a small group, yet influence a high percentage of the [youth] in a rural area (causing the group to grow larger an larger by the year). Examples of ‘tainters’ would be drug dealers (who sell to kids), the kool-cup lady who raises her prices every summer, & the perverts who graduated five years ago but shows up to the H.S games talking about, “I seen you out there tonight.”
Well, guess what??? I seen you too! & I've got news for you-
Ok, but seriously... small communities are being tortured by people who deceive the young and generous with their mischievous ways. They seek the immature, the indecisive, and the “weak minded.” In other words, your little sister, your little brother, and your grandma who sells the kool-cups.
They prey on your little sister because they've seen her grow up right before their very eyes. They have subconsciously been telling themselves, over the years, that she’s been getting finer and finer with age and once she touch that certain number that’s legal through the eyes of the law…
IT'S SHOWTIME!
As we know,
the internet has interjected into young (and older) women minds irrational stereotypes of what beauty should look like. This has made young ladies reciprocate looks of IG models and ‘fixed women.’ So now, 15 year olds are looking like Hottentot Venus with 24’ weave- and who‘s attractive to young minds with grown bodies?
Mhm.
She’s young, manipulative and has all the shapes in alllllll THE RIGHT places. He knows all of the spots she hangs out with her friends, (because there are only a few in a small town), so what’s stopping him? His homeboys? PSHH! It’s either, ‘none of their business’ or they’re flocking with him to the high school games to get one for themselves.
They target these young women (and men) because they want to take them down with them. 'Tainters' will never make it out of that small town, so they’ll do anything they can to be entertained and keep whoever they can there with them.
Tainters have nothing to lose.
ALLLLSOOOOO,
chasing younger ladies give these men a rush! They’re young, more beautiful, and easier to control. These men know young girls prefer older, ‘mature men’ because, for one, they get frustrated with dating guys their age; and two, talking to an older guy means more independence and excitement.
Look, tainters are drastically taking over our small towns, slowly but surely. They are infecting our youth minds with simple-minded treasures (WEED) and a tongue of persuasion. No one can help the fact that these tainters are apart of the town, but you can help by deciding if you’re going to be apart of the problem or apart of the solution.
So.... what is it going to be?
In A World Full of 'Tainters,' Be a Painter - Tori Summers
Written and edited by Tori Summers
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