Keeping Up With The Jones

Six years ago, I moved across the country from a city to a very, very small town. The immediate difference that my husband and I noticed, aside from having zero traffic and a thirty minute drive to a local grocery store, was the lack of keeping up with the Jones. What do I mean by that? It is the notion that you have to have the biggest house, the nicest furniture, the newest car, etc. There was a lot of that in the city. When we lived in the city, my husband and I always found ourselves focused on getting ahead as quick as we could so we could get rich and buy a big TV and a brand new car. We would plan out what our next new prize was going to be and talked endlessly about how nice our house would look with it. We wanted to prove to the world that we were better than everybody and well on our way to getting rich.

When we moved to Virginia, we immediately got back into that mindset. We bought our third house and worked to fix it up to be as fancy as we could make it even though we didn't exactly have the money to do so. Once again, we had to prove to the world that we were bigger and better than the other people our age because we had fancy, nice things. It took us no more than a year to realize that no one cared. In the country where we live, there are no billboards to remind you that you need to go out and spend your money on the next cool thing. It's just farms and laid-back people. And these people couldn't care less if you lived in a barn or a mansion. They are just friendly and happy in life. They wave to you when you when you drive by them even if you have no idea who they are. In the city, I never had that happen to me. If I waved to a stranger I would stop them in their tracks and they'd give me a funny look for waving at them. 

As time passed, my husband and I started to see life differently. We stopped caring so much that we drive an older vehicle and that we don't wear designer clothes. It was as if a large curtain that had been blocking our eyesight was removed and we could really, truly see what mattered. We began to see that all those things we had spent money and time on were really just a waste and would never really make us happy. It was almost as if we were telling ourselves that we would never be happy until we had the biggest house and the nicest car. But sadly when you get that big house and nice car you will find that it doesn't make you happy. My husband and I learned a valuable lesson through this experience. Being in the country has helped us to see that we were all wrong about happiness. And we were not truly happy by seeking to have the materialistic things in the world. 

Now, when it comes to a purchase, we save for it and think about if we need it first before buying it. It is a very different approach from how we did things before. We have realized that there will always be those people in the world who look down on us for not wearing those designer clothes or being caught up in materialistic things, but we are the ones who are really happy. Not them.