text: [Themes: edutainment, socially important]
  
  Welcome to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania! You were born and raised in the Amish congregation of this region. Your society's culture developed out of the Mennonite faith after a group of Mennonites separated from their church in the 17th century. They didn't think that the Mennonite practices were strict enough. The Amish originally lived in Switzerland & south of the Rhine river, however their migration to America began in the 18th century. Most moved into Pennsylvania but others moved to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, and Ohio, totaling 180,000 Amish over 22 states. The Amish work to preserve rural, late 17th century European culture by isolating themselves from American culture, modernization, and globalization. This isolation is due to your people's belief that you are "God's own people".
  
  You are a girl, choose your name!
  
  [Author's Note: An evaluation of the quality of life of a contemporary, non-globalized society: The Amish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.]
  
  > Grace
  Your morning starts with a traditional Amish Prayer. You get dressed in your plain, modest, calf-length dress with a cape, bonnet, and apron. You eat a healthy and wholesome breakfast of eggs and bread that was made without an electric stove. Your society refuses to uses main electricity, but accepts self-generated energy.This means that your home does not have a television, computer, landline telephone, or mobile phone. You embrace the lack of telephones in your community because it encourages face-to-face communication. While sitting at the table, your mother tells you to sweep, feed the animals, and make the beds in the traditional language of your people, Pennsylvania German. She says "that should be sufficient".
  
  > choose to do the chores
  Wise choice, you are a good and obedient girl. You complete the chores and happily go off to school.
  
  > School
  At school, you are taught skills that are needed to be a good wife and mother. You learn basic mathematics, reading, and writing. It appears that today is the last day of school! Education within the Amish community does not continue past the 8th grade, so it was fun while it lasted! To celebrate, you skip home merrily and dream of your years of wifehood to come in the distant future. CRASH! SMASH! NEIGHHHH!
  
  Oh no! Not another horse-drawn buggy and car collision! This sort of thing happens often due to the outside world's chaotic and dangerous modernization that attempts to infect your community's affinity for traditional modes of transportation. If only there was a way to contact someone and get aid in response! You must go and fetch help quickly!
  
  > run to the Town Hall!
  You race into the town hall and run right into your Uncle Abe! You tell him what happened and he runs to the scene of the accident. It's getting dark, and a young girl like you should get home quickly. You are aware that high profile sexual abuse cases occur often within the community and are not reported to law enforcement. You don't want to become a statistic, so you dash home!
  
  > Dash home!
  After running into the house, you yell out what happened to the members of your family. Your young sister, Mary, that suffers from Cohen Syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes physical and mental issues is startled. You pick her up to calm her. Her disorder resulted from the small gene pool that exists within the Amish community and a lack of genetic variation. Because of the high fertility rate from your community's avoidance of contraception methods and a prevalence of genetic disorders, the Amish have an infant mortality rate that is higher than average.
  
  Your brother, Jeb, responds to your call and goes to help. You stay behind because this is a man's duty and you are a subordinate woman.
  
  At home, you work on your homework and participate in the daily Bible activity. Your mother is at the church, making quilts to provide more income, and your father is working at the farm. You make dinner for your siblings as it gets dark outside.
  
  Tonight there is a special Youth group meeting to attend. Youth group is a time to interact with others & enter a more formalized social world. However, you have begun to question your faith.
  
  > go to Youth Group
  You walk with your friends Rebecca and Lydia to the church. Inside, it is buzzing with excitement and chatter because it is officially time to discuss Rumspringa.
  
  Rumspringa, or "running around" is a time for Amish teenagers to experience the outside world and ultimately find a marriage partner. Since teenagers are not yet baptized church members, the purpose of Rumspringa is self-discovery. During this time, field trips to the outside world are taken, outside music and globalized culture is introduced, and rules from the Ordnung are lessened.
  
  It is also during this period that the courting process begins. Traditionally, A young man will invite a young woman to drive her home in his buggy after a Sunday singing. A dating couple may exchange letters and see each other mainly on weekends under supervision. A couple may date for a year or longer before a young man may ask for marriage.
  
  Rumspringa is optional for teenagers. Do you decide to participate or decline?
  
  > Rumspringa
  Rumspringa has officially begun! You and 50 other teenagers embark to experience the globalized world.
  
  You begin by changing your clothes from a traditional dress, apron, and bonnet to a pair of pants and a t-shirt. You stop attending prayer at home and doing your chores. At youth group, they show you a television and you watch a program. One night, you are even given a glass of wine! You attend Sunday-night sings at the church as a way to meet adults and establish relationships with men in the courting process.
  
  Rumspringa has been immensely fascinating for you. You have learned a lot about American culture but question the ideals and beliefs behind it. However, you do enjoy the entertainment and freedom.
  
  The final part is a field trip to Boston. You pack your bags and board a bus for the first time. It is your first time out of the Amish community.
  
  > Boston
  Boston is buzzing with excitement and life. You are awed by the skyscrapers and bustling roads. Your youth group checks in to the hotel. Your room is full of modern amenities and luxury- fancy showers, microwaves, televisions, and 250-thread-count sheets. You do admit that you enjoy this aspect of life.
  
  You go to restaurants and stores and afterwards a baseball game at Fenway Park- you have never experienced competition before!
  
  The next day, you are introduced to Sawyer Yoder, a boy in your youth group. He is polite and timid, but slightly boring. You agree to start the courting process with him because he has good values.
  
  After another full day of sightseeing and cultural immersion, you go back to the hotel and get ready for bed. As you walk down the hall to get ice from the machine (another luxury), you trip and fall. Suddenly, you are looking into the eyes of a mysterious and dreamy boy- Skylar Ace. You spend the next hour chatting with this boy. He is kind and funny but clearly a cultured American. He could be the one.
  
  Do you follow your heart and choose Skylar and the American lifestyle or do you reject the outside culture and return to Lancaster with Sawyer?
  
  > Sawyer
  You are among the 90% that choose to remain Amish after Rumspringa.
  
  You return to your family in Lancaster. While the globalized world is enticing and exciting, you believe to your religion and ideals. The outside life is full of sin. You marry Sawyer and create a simple and happy life. You have 5 beautiful children and raise them in the church. You grow old but the Amish lifestyle has not changed due to resistance of globalization.
  
  While you will always wonder about what could have happened if you left your religion, you know that the Amish community is your home.