I'm curious as to why it ended up being that way.

It's odd but also interesting for me to think about different upbringings because I had this mind-body split when I was growing up between the Pacific Northwest having more of the "out there" belief systems and the Midwest having the conservative, grounded in Christianity belief system. So it's weird to think that not very far away from where I was experiencing the more "conservative" belief systems during vacations every summer (and some winters), other people were sort of having what I would have believed was more like the "Pacific Northwest belief system" experience? It's as if something in my little kid mind can't quite process or wrap my head around the idea. The Midwest is where the conservative people were. The Pacific Northwest was where the other kinds were. I knew I was supposed to act one way in the Midwest and another way in the Pacific Northwest! But clearly,  my experience was not necessarily the same as other people's experiences.