Bright Lights, Bigger City

"You gotta go where things happen."
A League of Their Own (1992)

The 1992 hit "A League of Their Own" tells a fictionalized story of the short-lived All American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. It specifically focuses on one team, the Rockford Peaches, and its roster that was composed of athletic young women, mostly from rural towns across America. There's a scene in the first third of the movie (during the recruiting phase) where Marla, one of the most talented recruits, (whose gentle demeanor and rough tomboy exterior make her, perhaps, one of the most endearing characters among a thoroughly charismatic and colorful cast) is hesitant to leave her father, a widower, and their small Colorado town to go play in the league. He stands next to her at the train station and hands her a baseball glove and says tenderly, "Nothing's ever gonna happen here. You gotta go where things happen."

It's an incredibly touching scene of fatherly love and, of course, we want Marla to get on the train and bat her way to baseball glory. However, there's also a sentiment in the message of that scene that has managed to remain a common cornerstone of the small town mentality: "You gotta go where things happen." Bright lights, bigger city.

As a result, children in small towns all across the nation have been the targets of rhetoric that suggests the road to success begins with heading to a larger metropolis (typically by way of college) where their dreams will be fulfilled (Glinda described it to Dorothy as the "yellow brick road" to a land called OZ.) High schoolers and even college students are typically conditioned to believe that if they're really talented, bright, or have a hunger for success, they'll need to find a bigger stage to shine. Bigger cities mean the big time, and it's time to "go big or go home." So they follow the bright lights to the bigger city. Because they want to go big, so they rarely go home. In fact, the 2010 census revealed that urban population growth increased 12.1 percent from 2000 meaning that now over 80 percent of the American population lives in an "urban area."

This is somewhat problematic.

What happens to small towns as each class of newly minted high school grads sets sail for college and those bigger cities? It drains them of some of their most promising offspring. It means fewer of the children who grew up in small towns return to rural areas like the ones that raised them after they've completed their higher education, study abroad trips, and internships. It means less tech-savvy, pragmatic, and imaginative post grads coming back to build bridges that would enable small towns to more easily transition into the future and become more sustainable.

Why is this such a problem? Because it's predicated on a falsehood. Zip codes and city limits do not have magical powers. Big city air is not purer (we know the opposite to be true in most cases) nor is the big city water a magical elixir (again... big city tap water = Brita filter). Small towns and rural villages in America produce children that are just as capable, just as worthy, and just as imaginative as the big cities and "urban areas" in America. They are born with the same rights and freedoms. Sometimes they have cows as neighbors. Which is awesome. Sometimes their second car is a tractor. Which is practical. They may not have as many bright lights, yet that doesn't mean they don't have equally bright futures.

AMAZING things can happen in small towns. INCREDIBLY SMART people live in small towns. INNOVATION and CREATIVITY can thrive in small towns. OPEN MINDS and OUTRAGEOUS COMPASSION can exist in small towns.

We must stop qualifying people, problems, potential, and communities by zip code or population numbers. Nor by the number of sky scrapers or cattle per capita. We must encourage outrageous compassion, bold entrepreneurship, and dedicated problem solving right here, in our town. We must promote smaller cities and rural villages as exciting challenges and blank canvases that promise opportunity and bear need just like their big city counterparts.

Small towns do not have to be small-time, nor small-minded, sleepy, or static. 

Small towns are ALIVE. 

They are full of bright people with big hearts and hardworking hands. Small towns have great strength and mighty voices. They are a vibrant pattern in the American tapestry. They are capable of greatness and breeding grounds for ingenuity.

So let's revise our message to the kids of small town America. Let's stop telling them "You gotta go where things happen" and start telling them "You gotta go make things happen."

Everyday, at all seven sites our organization operates, our staff works to inspire our kids to dream and achieve without any specific parameters.  We encourage creativity, problem solving, and teamwork. The programs we lead are designed to develop our bright young kids into bright young adults who will become bright capable leaders. Our staff will not venture to dictate where they might take their bright minds and capable leadership. We do not value one problem or issue over another because of its location or scale. Because they all need solving. Likewise, we will not value one problem-solver over another because they are all greatly needed. Our staff enters our sites each day, knowing that we are training, teaching, and counseling future adults. The same future adults that we'll elect to city councils. The same future adults that will go on to teach in our schools. The same future adults that will become parents of the next generation of kids. We are playing a role in what both our small towns and big cities will look like in the future because we play a role in the development of their future citizens and leaders. So we discuss all problems, big and small, with great concern just as we help this community raise its future leaders, big and small, with a sense of great purpose.

We are the Boys and Girls Club of magnificent "small town" communities of Waynesboro, Staunton, and Augusta County. And we believe "Great Futures Start Here."