About 6 months ago, I moved from big city Denver, Colorado, to small city Wichita, Kansas. If you are ever thinking about making this move, or a similar move from a big city to a small city, here are the top things to remember:

“Why did you decide to move away from Denver?” “What brought you to Wichita?” “Wow you chose Wichita over Denver?”. Everyone who finds out that I moved from Denver to Wichita, their first question is why and I feel the need to explain myself and my decisions to everyone I meet.

You end up defending what is great about the new city to people who have lived there all their lives

This is the point that still strikes me as odd. As soon as I tell people I moved from Colorado they start rattling off reasons why Denver is better than Wichita and they tell me all the negatives about their city and how surprised they are that I chose to move here. If they really thought it was so bad, why did they move here? I end up defending their own city to them. I have found that it takes an outsider to make you really appreciate your own city, and I hope I have served that purpose to many people, reminding them how beautiful the Kansas sunsets are and how lucky they are to have Lightening Bugs in June.

There are two things that happen without fail everytime I tell someone where I moved from. “The Face” and the emphasis. The raised eyebrows, the sudden head jerk back, followed by the emphasis on the word “chose”. People are always surpsied that I chose (opposed to being forced) to move and always stress the word to make it seem as though no one would choose to move here of their own volition. This is always accompanied by “The Face”.

People often expect you to have negative things to say about their city

Often when I tell people that I moved from Denver, they ask me all sorts of questions about how I am enjoying the humidity or if I have gotten bored of their small city yet. They expect that I will think badly of their city just because it is smaller than the one I moved from, and again I end up defending how I like the small city because of its differences from the big city.

Despite the assumption that I will have nothing good to say about the small city, there is always a subtle hostility if I do say something negative about the city. I end up playing jump rope with my opinions. I must acknowledge that it is obviously humid in Kansas but also mention how my skin doesn’t feel as dry because of it. Admit that it is a much slower paced city, but say how much I appreciate the traffic not being as congested.

Moving is hard. You plan ahead for the packing, the logistics, the new place to live, starting the new job, etc., but you don’t always plan for the social changes that come with it. If you are moving, or you are thinking of moving, be prepared for these five things to come up in every conversation after themove.