My Ho-Hum Life

published September 16, 2010

in the Stockton Sentinel, 

Stockton, Kansas

     The old saying about "bigger is better" is not always true. I'm sure this revelation comes as no surprise to most adults who have a lot of life experiences on their "been there, done that" list.
     Last week, I attended three days of meetings in Topeka with Kansas Housing Resources Corp. (KHRC), getting up-to-snuff on all the latest rules and regulations from Housing & Urban Development (HUD), so that I can return to my morning job at Stockton Housing Authority/Valley View Apartments and keep cranking out a ton of paperwork. Like many of your job situations, about the time you feel like you're getting a handle on how to do something, it changes, and you have to start all over again. Not surprisingly, since I work under the federal government's umbrella, this is a regular occurrence at the Housing Authority.
     When I attend these meetings and sit in a conference room with a couple hundred other housing managers and management agents, we're all in the same boat; we all have to work under the same rules and regs. But as I hear their stories, I appreciate my quiet, pretty little neighborhood at Valley View even more.
     I come away from our meetings thinking about how much of the information was directed toward HUD housing in urban settings -- worries and concerns that I will not likely have to deal with in a small apartment complex in a rural setting.
     While it's nice to visit a large city, I would not want to live there. Oh sure, to be right there when you want to go shopping, or to have a myriad of choices when you want to avoid your own kitchen, may seem nice. But with "bigness" comes a lot of "badness," and as I listened to their stories, my own problems shrunk in comparison. To the city dwellers, we live life in the slow lane, in a "ho-hum" existence. But after all was said and done (and yes, including some shopping), I happily pointed my car west and returned home to pleasant little Valley View. I'll keep my "ho-hum" life, thank you very much.
     I enjoy attending my training meetings in Topeka or Kansas City because, more than anything else, I learn that what we have here -- not just at Valley View, but in Stockton and the surrounding area -- is really special.