1850

Who/where would I be if I had been alive in 1850....
I had to do a little bit of research before tackling this writing assignment just to refresh my memory on what was going on around the world in 1850. I was reminded that America was a very tumultuous place to be in 1850. We were a very young country, stil very much in the process of establishing our identity not only on this continent, but also on global scale. There was a lot of commotion as we had just expanded our territory from the East Coast all the way to the West Coast with the annexation of California and Texas in the 1840's. There was a lot of tension between the Northern States and the Southern States over issues such as State Rights and slavery.
I would have to say that if I had been alive during this time I would have probably been in some pretty unfortunate situations. Given my age and family background, I would most likely be lower-lower middle class. I am sure that there is a strong chance I would not have had access to much education growing up. Additionally, my home state, Texas, was just made a part of the U.S. after a decades long dispute/war with Mexico over the territory. I am sure that I would have probably seen a lot of death and war even at the young age of 23. However, this also got me thinking that during those times 23 was a pretty old age in comparison to how it is viewed today. I would, at 23, most likely already be responsible for providing for a family and potentially a couple of small children. I would have been brought up learning a trade, most likely farming or ranching based on where I live and what would have been there while I was growing up. I would imagine that right now, towards the onset of a new decade, I would be trying to figure out where I belonged in the whole scheme of things...
It would be a completely different world, with a drastically different set of problems and issues to deal with in comparison with my life today, however, there definitely would have been some similarities between a life then and my life now. I would think that as much as I enjoy the outdoors - camping, hiking, rafting, swimming, hunting, fishing - today, I would have been very content witn my life back then. Things would have been simpler in a sense: I would have had to interact with far fewer people on a daily basis, I would probably have a piece of land to myself that I would have enjoyed and cared for. But, conversley, I would miss a lot of the creature comforts that I have grown accustomed to in this life - A/C, vehicle transportation, readily available food and water, etc. One might argue that I wouldn't have missed these things because I wouldn't have known about them back then, which I would agree with, however, I feel like due to how active I enjoy being, I would have enjoyed getting to focus that energy on the outdoors and on life rather than on writing blogs and checking emails. Things back then would have moved much slower, the world would have seemed a lot bigger, and I am sure I would have thoroughly enjoyed the chance to be able to get away from civilization by simply going home.
Neeless to say, I think I would have liked living in the 1850's. I am an adventurer at heart, I love to be outside, and I often find myself hating how constricted and "on-the-grid" I feel at times in our modern, tech-hungry world. It would have been a harder life, without question. But, for me, I think it would have been a much more satisfying life to lead. Instead of just being innundated with worthless information for the better part of 23 years, I would have had to use my instincts and my intuition to teach myself how to survive in much tougher conditions. People today, in my opinion, and myself included, are much weaker, much lazier, and much more jaded than people would have been back then. I think that it would be nice to live in a slower, less nosy society. I'd do it if I had the chance I think... would you?