Maybe it’s wisest to make a point of saying that I was born and raised in the suburbs, so I’m accustomed to the semi-small town feel with knowing people who know everyone else and how we’re close without being squashed together in a physical kind of way. And no, I did not grow up behind the protection of a white picket fence. It’s not that kind of suburbia.
At the same time though, I live close enough to cities and have been to them more than enough times to know that there are certain kinds of mentalities that come and are established when living in either one of these environments. Cities are fast-paced and busy, suburbs are a little slower in pace and not as busy. Jobs flourish right and left in cities, the suburbs are for settling down for the night. People in the city tend to have a rather big picturesque kind of mentality, whereas with suburbs… not so much.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy with where I grew up and thankful even on several cases, but the older I’ve gotten, the more I tend to notice this varying trend that tends to pass from one suburb to another, especially in the cases of the older generations that are living there. There’s this mentality of being confined to that one location only, whereas other locations beyond are nothing more than planets in outer space in that sense. Little room is made for new ways of thinking and daring attempts at colossal projects are seem too “cinematic”- if you will. Why, when I was in high school, that oppression seemed to translate to a younger state of mind in my peers when they couldn’t understand why I was so passionate about being on the school paper. It was all in the matter of mentality.
The book that I’m working on at the moment has most of it taking place in and around the LA area- a city that I’ve been to only once in my life. But with the amount of research that I’ve done, I intend to resemble it not only as close as it actually is as possible, but also the way I see it; the way it were if I were granted access to literally walk about the visions in my head.
I’ve done this to provide a different state of mind, perhaps making it more interesting than need be. It’s not in any way to disregard suburbia life, but to give a glimpse as to what could be, as more open minds can tend to understand. We all have mentalities to explore in others, and potential ones in ourselves.
Lola By The Bay 
One Reply to “Influences and Non-Influences of the Suburbs and Establishing a Mentality”