your rumspringa

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I live in Amish Country and regularly see Amish youth going wild during their rumspringa period. (Lol, the other day a buggy drove by my house blaring rap music). If you aren't familiar with rumspringa, it is basically a period wherein Amish youth are asked to choose whether they will commit to being baptized and staying in the Amish community or decide to leave the sect and live in the outside world. (Here's a little more on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa).

Because they think it will be a more meaningful decision if it's an informed one, Amish elders allow their youth a period of time to experience what it is they will be giving up by committing to the lifestyle. And, that means Amish youth are sort of given a permission for a while to go out and 'sow their wild oats' without repercussion. It makes me think about how, despite having so much access to different viewpoints and lifestyles just by virtue of having access to Internet and television alone, many of us in the 'outside world' buy into conventions and messages we're sent growing up without first experiencing a counterpoint.

I'm not sure a lot of us are making enough use of our worldliness and I don't just mean by not doing drugs, being promiscuous and some of the other things people usually associate with rumspringa. I mean, how many people visit other places of worship and research other religions before deciding on a belief system? Or, how many people do you know who vote the same party as their parents without being able to clearly articulate why? How many of our decisions in life are dictated by what we were taught it was to 'be a man'? (Or, a woman?)

So, if you were given a blank check for a year to rebel and defy cultural norms in order to test out your own beliefs, what would you do and why?

As of yet I've spent years doing exactly that.

The only thing I really have left to do is to travel, see the people of the world and how they live and what it entails.

Meh... Been there, done that.

The problem with rumspringa is that Amish youth have such close ties with their community and are so dependent on the community that actual experience in the "real world" is excessively difficult when compared with those of us who choose to live in it. Of course they come back...they don't have to worry things like finding jobs and supporting their families when all those needs are provided for them. The lack of adequate education limits their prospects for academic or professional pursuits. After all, without a job, you have no money for drinking, chasing wild women, and dabbling in various and sundry material pleasures.

As for my own "rumspringa," I did enjoy learning about other religions and philosophies in my early college years and meeting the kinds of people I was never exposed to earlier in life. I tended to have more liberal views back then and was open to a lot of different things. I gradually started drifting away from those views because I was unimpressed with how that crowd treated other people and how often they were hypocritical. At one point I was attracting the wrong kind of attention to myself so I started hanging out with a different crowd where I felt generally more accepted.

What really opened my eyes was moving from the southeastern US to New York State for a couple of years. I'd made up my mind about a few things by this point and had started being a bit more vocal about my opinions. What I found was that while I was often in opposition to some of my peers, they were generally accepting and willing to at least give me a chance even if we didn't see eye-to-eye. They were pleasant, polite people for the most part, and the differences really made an impression on me. For example, take the subject of sarcasm. Southerners don't really get sarcasm like Northerners do. We tend to be obnoxiously understated and subtle. Southern values of politeness and subtlety are such that we can tell you to go to Hell in a hand basket and you'll actually look forward to the trip. Northerners are less likely to mince words, hence they come off as being extremely rude. My disregard for regional manners and complete unawareness of Southern nuance helped me fit right in, whereas I felt ignored at home.

Throughout my college years, even the years in the North Country, I was prone to drinking heavily, chasing wild women, and generally corrupting the youth. I was exposed to other religions by friends of mine and would debate Christianity with the occasional New-Ager or neopagan. The Buddhists I knew weren't so apt to go on the attack like the pagans, but we did have some nice conversations on reincarnation. I met a lovely ex-Mormon that unfortunately encouraged me to openly make fun of Mormons... I was JUST ABOUT to suggest getting into a different kind of church when it became obvious that she was pretty much just done with religion as a whole, and I later found out that the same is the case with a lot of ex-Mormons. Even though nobody busted me for saying some of the things I said, I made a point of keeping my opinions to myself after that.

I should add that I have a close relative who is (last I heard, but it's been years) Mormon, which makes it all the more important to me that I try not to be quite so injudicious when discussing religious difficulties pertaining to LDS, especially when it comes to ex-Mormons who may have an axe to grind against religion in general and not JUST their own church. After all, I don't like it when others bash MY religion...

I dated a beautiful, sweet U/U for about a year and a half and actually attended her church once. I actually kinda felt right at home for a few minutes... Then the preacher started going on about how Christians are a cannibalistic, zombie-worshiping, vampire cult. And that was on "visitor's day."

And it was at that point I really starting becoming more solidified in my own beliefs. My thinking was "if THIS is what other religions make people do, I'm better off where I was." I also had this unexplainable, overwhelming urge to get back into regular church attendance and read the Bible. I found a SBC church (in Northern New York, of all places) and discovered a group of people who worshipped in such an unusual way compared with the church I grew up in that I really didn't ever want to go home. I was, like, ok, it's the same denomination but...really??? And that was what really brought about a spiritual change of direction for me.

And that change of direction for the time being landed me where I am now. I work as a part-time, paid church staff member. For a while that just meant playing piano, but I've grown to the point I pretty much have the run of the place and virtually live there. I'm able to express myself musically through playing different instruments, rehearsing the praise band rhythm section, and feeding my current handbell obsession. I read the Bible a lot more than I used to. I'm more comfortable talking about my faith.

I could probably have come to the same place without having given up regular church attendance in college and without "living a little." But, on the other hand, sometimes faith is strengthened by having so many "real-world" experiences. Sometimes those experiences lead you right back where you start, like with me. There is no guarantee that will happen, and ultimately you just have to make up your own mind. That my faith is something I had a choice in makes it much more genuine and worthwhile in my opinion.

I don't know all the details of rumspringa but something seems half-disingenuous. What I mean by that; these Amish kids, AFAIK, have an Amish education. They can go out, sort of lampoon as a non-Amish, maybe get to know a little better what they're missing, but I don't see how they could in any way, shape or form, decide to leave and hit the ground running. Yes, the whole way they grew up is out of sync with the culture but also they have a completely different toolset and its not a toolset that I could see transitioning easily. Being successful as an Amish or being unsuccessful outside - its hardly a choice.

To the other question I think most of us find our own version of that and, not being in a culture with given religious rules as such or at least corners where we can get away from the general pop culture fabric, its pretty much all available to anyone who's looking (and I'd agree with you - anyone who wants to know more about anything just has to turn on their computer providing they have DSL or cable). I don't know if a blank check would even be necessary and these days, if it was, most people would probably write themselves a nest egg and invest it rather than going out globetrotting with the economy being what it's been.

I had a pretty sheltered life. No real internet access until I was 18, but when I was 16 I started checking out books and researching other cultures and religions. I suppose a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was basically thrown into the 'outside' world (aka non-LDS) as a teenager and started seeing other perspectives.

If I was given a blank check, I would likely invest in my future rather than a road-trip, though travelling would certainly be very tempting. I have children to think about, and as a single mother I can't just leave them or take them with me. Disappearing for an entire year would be unforgivable and I can't take them from their father like that. Besides, the money would be better spent getting myself a stable source of income.

I like that term.
My student days were my rumspringa. I got out of my home town, learned a lot about myself, developed a lot more independence and eventually settled. I tried a lot of new things, slept around a bit, learnt a lot of things I don't like and discovered that my first interests in computers and writing were still my main ones.

But, in a way, I've never quite stopped. I'm a lot more settled now and I rather like that, but in quiet ways I still like to do some rumspringing. New foods? New travel destinations? Yes please. I'm looking into writing music, I want to get my novel published, I'm looking into a new job after five years in one place. I may never stop until I die.