I read this and struck a chord with me.
‘You know, originating from a small town in ‘fill in the blank’—one of the areas that likely made a difference in this election—I didn’t realize until just this week how much all the learning, and the travel, and the business, and the experiences, and simply having the opportunity to live as a citizen of the world, as opposed to the citizen of just one country, has been about so much more than pleasure and fulfillment. It’s been about living an intelligent, curiosity-driven life. It’s been about growing. And expanding. And experiencing. It’s been about seeing. And feeling. And exploring. And you know what it’s really been about? Not the money and the success and all—that’s really just the superficial stuff—it’s about principle. And dignity. And self-respect. And options.’

One of the best things I’ve done is travel and live in different parts of the country.  I grew up in a very homogeneous atmosphere.  Everyone, and I mean everyone was a WASP  (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant).  I went to one of the largest high schools in the state, yet in my graduating class there were only two black students and none of any other race/ethnic background.  I didn’t know it while I was growing up, but I lived in a sundown town.  Sundown towns, sometimes known as sunset towns or gray towns, are all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States that practice a form of segregation by enforcing restrictions excluding people of other races via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation, and violence.  What I also didn’t know when I was growing up is that there was a very active branch of the KKK in town as well.  Now, if someone asks me where I grew up, I give a vague answer such as northern Indiana.  I don’t want to be associated in any way with such a place, lest someone mistakenly think that I am a prejudiced bigot.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It