Always outsiders? Perhaps.

Sometimes, I think I'll always feel like an outsider here. Well, maybe not completely. But a little.

I guess that comes with the territory of moving someplace new, though. Since I found a job in my local community instead of 45 minutes away, I have been making more connections with people. I've started feeling more like I belong here. I can go to the store and run into people I know. It's nice.

But there's a certain something ... an attitude, an outlook on life, something like that ... that I feel will always set me apart from the rest of the people here. Growing up in the East, particularly in a blue-collar, industrial region like the Pittsburgh area, you end up with a different way of looking at things than someone who was raised in the low-key Corn Belt.

Where we were raised, people are more used to living by the clock: Get up, go to work, work hard, hit up happy hour, drink hard, head home, sleep hard. No, that's not what everyone did, but that's the culture. Work hard, play hard. Out here, sure, I guess they do that. But at a slower pace. Here, they seem to live by the day, not by the hour.

My husband and I are quick to anger, quick to say, "Well screw that guy if he doesn't like it!" We don't hold all of the more "traditional" values that many people out here hold. We don't turn to the Bible for guidance. We don't go to church. We don't listen to country music. Quite the opposite.

I'm not saying the way people function out here is bad. Just different. Just not us. Our way works for us, but we're adjusting to their way, slowly. I just hope that as time goes on, we continue to find people who accept us for who we are and preferably, people we can connect with. At times, they feel few and far between.

But whatever. We'll make it. We always do. You know why? Because there's always "just us."