I think I can safely say that a lot of us are from a "small town" somewhere. The stereotypical small town is typically small-minded as well. I can't speak for everyone, but it is definitely a pattern I've noticed, and the small towns where I'm from are no exception.

I'm not from the typical small town; while small, there is also a college so it is somewhat more progressive, but it still has that small town feel where If you stay too long you can easily feel trapped.

Although some people don't necessarily feel trapped when staying in their small home town for too long, they often don't know what they're missing until they experience a new place.

Of course, I don't mean a move from one small town to another small town, but instead for a period of your life, move to a bigger town, or even a big city, where there is an unlimited diversity of people and multiple ways of thinking outside your own.

Moving to a place where there are actually things to do other than drive around the backroads with your old high school friends can actually show you how little your small town had to offer in the first place.

If you are one of those people who think that moving anywhere else is completely unnecessary, that all you need is right there in your small town where there is a total of one gas station and maybe a grocery store, then sadly you are just as narrow-minded as the people who never left that town either.

The world would be a much better and peaceful place with less narrow-minded people in the world. When people don't go out in the world, nine times out of 10 they just end up believing and living how everyone around them does, and aren't able to form opinions for themselves; and yes, that is a problem.

You don't have to move away forever, but a lot of times when you realize how narrow minded you have been and those around you are, sometimes it can make it hard to come back.

Maybe not everyone gets the opportunity to do so, but I highly encourage you to get out and travel to new places if at all possible. Your way of thinking and how you live life is not the only way, and it is important to learn about those other than your own.

When you become more open-minded, you inevitably become a more tolerant person, and that can't happen if you only surround yourself with the same people all of your life who have never experienced the world either.