Photo By Katia Davis
I read a N.Y. Times article a few years ago that featured the county I grew up in, and said that it was one of the hardest places in the nation to live. While this is true according to data, there is a large disconnect from what people in drastically different areas really know about each other.
I lived in Eastern Kentucky up until I started college. It’s very different from many places in many different ways. Both of my parents had to work, sometimes multiple jobs just for us to have a roof over our head and food on the table, but it was not a hard place to live. As with food, you have to have to get used to it.
Depending on where you live there are different things that you have to grow used to, working to provide for a large family in an area where jobs are hard to come by was something my parents had to deal with. It was hard on them, but they did anything that they could to give our family a good life.
Most of my extended family can be considered as living below the poverty line. I have seen people living with a large family in a small trailer, only a few pairs of clothing for the week and even living without water. These things are all terrible in some ways, but when you grow up in that type of environment you get used to it.
In some cities there is violence, in Eastern Kentucky there are people that expect to have jobs that will probably never flourish like they used to. In an area that has a high crime rate parents have to teach their children where dangerous areas are or what they should do in an emergency. In an area that’s poverty stricken, you do what you can to get by, and you never splurge on things that aren’t that necessary to live.
Eastern Kentucky is not a place to move if you are expecting to find a job easily (unless you know someone) or a place to live if you expect to live a luxurious life without already having some money saved. In some places there is beautiful scenery and open land but do not expect that in all of Eastern Kentucky.
Trailer parks exist, but are not the only form of housing in the area. Trailers, or mobile homes, are cheaper and more convenient for some families. They are not all as “rundown” and “raggedy” as depicted in a lot of movies. Some trailers aren’t very nice, but they are just a place to live, which is more than one can ask for.
Not everyone has a farm or has grown up working in a garden. Not everyone has that “southern charm” that is expected of all people from the “South” (if that is really how you want to classify Kentucky).
Eastern Kentucky, from data and outside views, may seem like a “hard place to live,” but when you come from the area you know exactly how to get by. Living is not difficult. Sure, not everyone has a lot of money, but most everyone has what they need.