There are places I'll remember all my life, though some have changed...

Full day the third of being back in good old Blacky D.
And I'm starting to notice just how different Guelph truly is.
I know that Black Diamond was my home for years, for the better part of my life. But there are just certain things that I'm noticing about the town, the people who live in the town, and the opinions these people hold that I didn't notice before. And these are really starting to bother me.
Maybe it's because I'd gotten used to doing whatever I wanted, with the knowledge that no one would judge me so harshly for doing so. Maybe these are things that I couldn't notice from such a close distance. Or maybe, I these are things that I had always secretly known or suspected, but couldn't admit to. Because that would mean admitting that I was different, that I didn't value what they valued, that I didn't care about what they cared about. And as we all learned from a young and impressionable age, different is bad. Repeat after me boys and girls: different is bad.
At any rate, I find myself a different person coming back here than I was when I left. I find it difficult now to see past how gossip and alcoholism are the cornerstones of my town. Everyone seems so closed minded, and unwilling to accept anything new or different. (What did we learn boys and girls?)
Case in point: I went to the bar for the first time tonight. With my mom, and friends of our family. We were discussing what types of food I eat when I'm not at home, and when I started to talk about things such as chickpeas, portabella and feta sandwiches, or couscous, I was instantly written off. Cries of "That's not real food!" or "What do you MEAN you still don't eat red meat?" assailed my ears. And try as I might to defend my position, that this was in fact REAL food, and it was in fact delicious, I was outnumbered from the beginning.
It's not just conversations that are inducing these sudden revelations. It's the town itself - it feels to me like it's dying. By looking at it, one might think that the exact opposite is happening: new buildings are being built, new stores moving in, things are progressing. But I can't find the admirable qualities I once could, and that scares me.
Despite these jaded ramblings, I did in fact have a very good day. Which I will write about tomorrow, as I've run out of words.