Rural Life: Hospitals

In my new position as economic development director, I've realized that there are certain things necessary to make anywhere, but especially a rural community, a good place to live. I haven't just realized them, but as I'm thinking of ways to motivate and inspire people to move to my small town they've come to the front of my mind. One of the most important factors for whether or not you want to live somewhere is do they have a hospital? Or any type of healthcare for that matter.

I actually wanted to write this post about 6 months ago. I was first really struck by the importance of having a hospital in a rural community when my family helped an elderly couple with their medical situation. During church an elderly gentleman started getting weak and wasn't able to stand or walk on his own very well. Immediately after church his wife was trying to help him get out of church, down the steps and to the car, but his legs were so weak it was difficult. My family got pulled in to the situation, not only because it is a small town and that's what you do, but because my brother was one of the few people in church strong enough to help support and basically carry this man to his car. As soon as we got him there, his wife knew something was wrong and he needed to get to the hospital ASAP! Thankfully, my hometown has a hospital and a wonderful one at that. We were able to get him in the ER and have him checked out. It took a couple of hours for tests to be run, but when all was said and done he got seen quicker than he would've in a city hospital. On top of that, they were able to call the pharmacist who was willing to quickly run down to the pharmacy to fill a prescription. At 9 o'clock at night. How cool is that?!

If that facility wasn't available, this couple would've had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest hospital where I'm sure their prescription would've had to wait till the next day. Amazing. My favorite part of this story was that after we helped this elderly couple back home they offered us food and chatted with us about life. This was the first time I'd ever met them.

In my current location, they have a very modern hospital with some of the latest medical technology. Not only does this town have a hospital and nursing home, they have a dentist and pharmacy. There are also two optometrists that visit twice a week. For those who prefer alternate forms of medicine, we also have a very good chiropractor (I went to him last week). Citizens can have most of their health care needs taken care of right at home. They are also working on a project to make sure their airport is up to code so the flight for life planes can easily access our little town.

Hospitals are in the top three things that are necessary if a rural community is to survive. Thankfully we have individuals such as my former boss, Senator Jerry Moran, standing up and promoting rural health care to insure its future. That is one of many reasons I admire him. Incentives for medical students to return to and serve underserved areas such as rural communities will also help insure the future of rural health care. Progressive actions such as hospital remodeling, as our population ages will continue to help the survival of rural community hospitals. We need to not only make sure that healthcare is available for the aging population but also our younger generations as well.

Words of Wisdom:"I will work to make sure that Kansans have access to health care networks within their own communities because this care is essential to the prosperity and survival of the towns we call home." Senator Jerry Moran 

My New Life

Wow I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've blogged. I've started my new life in rural America and have yet to set up internet. That also means I have yet to have cable and have been biding my time watching DVDs, taking walks, and playing Angry Birds on my iPhone. I've thought about blogging from my iPhone but quickly realized I don't have the patience for that. So right now, I'm at work, on a Saturday and decided to take a little break and blog.

I'm grateful to be back in Western Kansas. I love it here, the people are kind, the weather doesn't make me feel like I'm suffocating (reference to the humidity of Eastern Kansas and DC)...except when the dust gets to blowing, and I'm blessed to have a job doing what I love. I find joy in gardening and was afraid I was going to lose the one thing making me happy here when a hailstorm rolled through town last night. But no worries all the plants survived and were probably relieved at the drink of rain that followed the hail. I absolutely love driving down the street and getting waves from everyone I pass. That just doesn't happen anywhere else and it always makes me smile.

There are downsides to being here and it's becoming harder to smile and tell the truth when people ask me how I'm getting along and how I like it here. I have no friends, not for a lack of trying, but I just think I don't know how to make friends. I've met so many people who are very kind, but sometimes my head spins trying to remember names and faces, but there's nothing like meeting someone who can be a real friend. I live alone, which I enjoy...most of the time. Given I haven't found a friend, it's hard to find a roommate who I know I would get along with. I guess I'm a picky person. At work, I feel as though I'm constantly being compared to the former director and I recognize I have big shoes to fill and I will. However, people need to realize I'm not her and the circumstances are completely different given sources of funding are hard to find and I'm allowed an adjustment period to learn about the community. Come Friday every week, I'm literally on the verge of tears from stress and defeat. I truly believe this community, though small, has the potential to be great. I get a sense of negativity from some people and I want to work to stop that and spread a positive outlook but negativity really is a disease and it takes more than one person to combat it.

If I get to blog more regularly, I want to talk about the assets in this community and hopefully I'll start seeing changes in attitudes. This community really does have a lot to offer. There's great shopping and friendly people to help you out. There is a rich history, much of which can be explored in the Museum of the Great Plains. The health care system and education system are both top notch. And truly most of the people are complete gems, very welcoming and glad to have me in their community. Hopefully I will be able to find those people who will be on my team and help me change this town.

Sorry there aren't any pictures...since I'm on my work computer I don't have access to any. This really is a good place to be, I just need to find a friend here, because many of friends can't relate to what I'm experiencing or are too busy living their own lives to care it seems.

Words of Wisdom: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Inspirational quote of the moment

So the other day I was feeling like I really missed out on some parts of the college life and could have done better. Well today is my business school graduation ceremony and I was blessed to find this quote that made me feel better about all those doubts.

Words of Wisdom: “No matter how careful you are, there’s going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn’t experience it all. There’s that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should’ve been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That’s how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice.” ~Chuck Palahniuk

Never knew done would feel like this....

Today I took my last final as a college student. I will have a college degree in Business Management and Leadership Studies with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. I have landed a terrific job doing something I absolutely love. I have made numerous memories and friends, I've got good grades(3.87 GPA), I've won some awards and served in a few leadership roles in campus groups. I've had jobs and internships, travel experiences and I've lost and found myself along the way.

Right now, I should be elated with my accomplishments. Just the fact I have a degree and a job should be enough but I feel like something's missing. I keep thinking about the things I didn't do. I missed opportunities to study harder and get that 4.0 GPA.  I didn't complete the KU Honors Program, mainly because most of the classes that would have been perfect for honors courses I took in high school. I never had a role as President of a group. I have no significant other to be proud of my accomplishments. I don't know if I'm dwelling on the things I missed because it's over or if I'm genuinely disappointed in myself for not doing college bigger and badder. Is this what its supposed to feel like to reach a goal this big?  

Sorry for the sob fest...I really am proud of what I've done but part of me wonders if I could have been better and I don't know if this is normal. I'm also sorry I'm posting this more or less unedited. I hope you like it raw.

Holy Week

I don't usually like writing or talking about religious things but I was kind of moved and full of thoughts today so this post may be a little weird. I'll just start off by saying I've never been truly religious. I've attended the Catholic church my entire life, somewhat reluctantly. Somewhere inside of myself, I wanted to be the perfect Catholic and later the perfect Christian, and have tried for the majority of 22 years to "fake it till I make it." However, something is missing. Perhaps it's my unwillingness to surrender to the unknown. Or my disgust with hypocrites and the actions of so-called Christians, of which I am one. Don't get me wrong, I believe in a higher power, just not wholeheartedly at all times.I would say that I'm certainly more spiritual rather than religious. However, with my grandfather's passing in January I felt the need to find God and my faith. He was the most devout Catholic and set an example for his children and grandchildren. However, in the past 4 months I have only been to church a total of 5 times. Every time I went I would find myself sitting alone thinking of how much I missed my grandfather and how much I desired to have that relationship with God and be moved the way my grandfather was, and then I would cry. In church. Surrounded by strangers. Talk about embarassing.

Anyway...all this brings me to the point that today, Palm Sunday, is the beginning of Holy Week. As I sat in church today, memories of Lenten seasons and Holy Weeks past came to mind. I recalled the Wednesday night Stations of the Cross, repeating words that at the time were just words and now hold meaning beyond belief. I recalled discussing Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ with a woman who has since passed, who tried her hardest to bring my doubting heart to Jesus. I recalled the Easter Sunday services with unfiltered light shining as the back door of my little country church swung wide open, the light symbolic of new life. I recalled being surrounded by family and good food and enjoying Easter egg hunts in the backyard. My grandfather would fill eggs with quarters not candy, which is symbolic of struggles that are occurring now. I recalled the awkwardness of my youth on Good Friday as I was told to venerate the cross with a kiss, containing a splinter of the true cross found by St. Helen. Why would I want to kiss an inanimate object?  Through all these strange thoughts and memories somehow, for once, as I sat in church, I was moved. The unselfishness and love showed to all of us by Jesus, which is really brought to light during Holy Week, is something I want to show to others. His fear as he prayed in the garden at Gethesmene showed just how human and divine he was all in one. While I may not be the best Catholic or Christian, I always strive to love everyone as Jesus loved us. And I'm really looking forward to Holy Week because while the story is always the same, the memories and meaning change from year to year.

Words of Wisdom: "This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you." John 15:12

Education is the Key to Rural Community Survival

This excerpt from the book, Survival of Rural America: Small Victories and Bitter Harvests by Richard Wood really spoke to me and I wanted to share some thoughts with you.  Jackson refers to Wes Jackson of the Land Institute outside of Salina.


"The universities now offer only one serious major: upward mobility. Little attention is paid to educating the young to return home and contribute to their communities. There is no such thing as a 'homecoming' major," by which Jackson means "home" in at least two contexts: the rural communities from which many people come - and to which most never return, and home as a "coherent community that is in turn embedded in the ecological realities of its surrounding landscape." "We educate kids to take tests," Jackson says, but "teachers don't even know how to talk about community responsibility.."


As many of you know this has been the plight of small towns for decades and something as a sophomore in high school I set out to reverse. There has been this mindset that educated people don't return to small towns, and my question is why the hell not? As I near the end of my education at the University of Kansas, and I'm not bashing my beloved almost alma mater at all, but I've recognized the lack of promotion there is for the rural lifestyle. Yes, a majority of the students are from and will return to the big city after graduation, but as Jackson says, it seems there is nothing much being done to promote returning to rural America. I've been a believer that this idea of returning home needs to start at home in the community, in your family when the person is younger, however, why not educate more students on the importance of the rural way of life. I'm utterly disappointed that the University of Kansas, to my knowledge does not offer a rural socialogy class or major. And for that fact, I'm not even sure that KSU does either. Luckily in the past year, I've been able to share my rural insights and passions with a few of my professors and they clearly see the benefits of helping rural communities. They've begun working on projects and encouraging any other students from rural communities to consider returning there. However, these are just two people that are working on this...there needs to be a much bigger focus than that.

I'm thankful that my "return home education" started years ago and is now coming full circle. It frustrates me that those "city kids" I've had in classes and as friends do not understand why I want to return to a small town. I've tried many times to explain and demonstrate the numerous benefits to rural America's way of life, while understanding it may not be for everyone. True, I will not be returning home to Atwood, but I will be returning home to Western Kansas. After 7 years of working with people in Rawlins County, we have seen an increase in former AHS graduates returning home and it delights me. It's often of their own accord, but changing the mindsets of people both in universities and communities to encourage rural returns I believe will increase this trend. One of things I'm most excited to try and implement in my new position in Wichita County is to work to bring young people home. Get the young people involved while in high school and educate them on the opportunities that are theirs, if they want to return home.

I hope that if you call a rural community home you will seriously consider returning there someday and bringing your talents and knowledge you gain from the rest of the world home with you. And my dear city friends, please come visit me and I'll do my best to demonstrate the beautiful and sacred way of life that rural communities offer. I promise you just because the way of life is slower does not mean that we are any less educated than any of you.

The Miracle Day

Today seemed like just another day in many aspects but in others, it was full of miracles.

Miracles witnessed:
1) How much being a true friend can change someone's day, life, attitude.
2) How powerful social media is checkout Twitter posts for #operationlayla and #prayforjapan. 
3)  Operation Layla. Social media was abuzz and these tremendous ladies in the blogging world raised and are continuing to raise money for a friend in need. Just reading a couple of blog posts from Jessica and Laura, I jumped on board. I was so moved and I hope you will also be willing to donate to this cause. I'm making Oreo Fudge Bars and I hope that you'll want to bid on them! Trust me, they're delicious!
4) Absolutely beautiful weather for the beginning of March.

For Lent, I'm doing things that will enhance my outlook on life and help me realize that life isn't as bad as I sometimes make it. I'm counting my blessings and taking time to think about the best thing that happens to me every day and I'm also going to help someone else in some way or another every day. I was feeling kind of down in the dumps tonight and in my attempt to be positive, I started thinking about the miracles that I saw today especially in Operation Layla and wanted to share it with you all.

Words of Wisdom: "There are only two ways to live your life: One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything in life is a miracle." - Albert Einstein