Hammer, meet nail head! This is a damn fine analysis. It echoes my upbringing almost too well. Thank you for your perspective! You’re not alone as the claps and responses testify.

I got out and, like you, struggled in college. Perhaps my curse and blessing was that I was never afraid of failure, which made me more resilient but also made me a black sheep and pariah.

I’m currently trying to break this same spell over my younger cousin, who is a recovering meth addict and suffers from bipolar disorder due to the damage wrought by this rural mentality (the meth also had some causative effect for sure). Giving him a safe place to lay his head at night, I hope I’m being a positive influence and showing him another way. Education isn’t just the responsibility of teachers and schools. It takes a village, as they say…