The Community You Know

Last week during Spring Break, I made a trip back to my hometown, the community I know. Or maybe it is the community who knows me. It seemed surreal since I ran into people I had worked with many years ago when I was a reporter. They were a bit older, and of course, so am I, but they really hadn't changed.

Because we shared something for several years, we had a common bond, and that common bond made it easy to talk, share and catch up on what life has handed us. But in talking with these people who had been such an integral part of my life in the 1990s, I discovered that I had changed.

While we will always have our shared experiences, our lives have diverged. I no longer live in the small town where I grew up, and I no longer have those shared experiences. Now, my experiences involve a different city and a different way of life.

Sometimes when I go back to the town where I grew up, I fondly remember the community that I had then. It was a bustling hub of newspaper, softball, city, county, College Station, Bryan and Texas A and M connections. But when I return home I realize that I have just as much bustle in my life and just as much community.

This week, I attended an IABC Fort Worth professional meeting with some students, and we were welcomed with open arms to the community of communicators. It felt just like "old home," so I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the company of my current community.

What this says to me is I guess your level of comfort is in direct proportion to how well you know the community and how well the community knows you, no matter how close or far away that community might be.