Since I chose my college, I have been meeting other incoming freshmen. Going to an art school means that I have a lot in common with my future classmates, but there is one thing that distinguishes me from most of them: I am from a town with a population of less than 2,000. As I enter college and, eventually, the art world, I presume that I will have to answer a bunch of questions about small town life. This is probably a good place to start.
1. How safe is it? It is commonly thought that living in a rural area is safer than living in the city, and, in many ways, it is. But it is also dangerous in ways that you wouldn’t at first imagine. For example, in big cities, people will be sent to the hospital for automobile accidents. In rural areas, people will be sent to the hospital for flipping their tractors over. Y’know, stuff like that.
2. Does everybody really know each other in a small town? This really depends on what kind of a person you are. If you live in a small town, you’re one of two things: enthusiastic or unenthusiastic. The enthusiastic ones were born here, went to school AND college here, and never plan to leave. These people typically know or know of the majority of people in town. If you’re unenthusiastic (like me), you probably weren’t born here (born in Omaha, NE), were forced against your will to work/go to school here (my dad got a job here), and plan to leave as soon as the opportunity presents itself (70 days until I move to North Carolina). The unenthusiastic ones know each other and they’re aware of the big families full of enthusiastics' (I like to call them “dynasties”) that live here, but they’re not friends with any of them.
3. Do people say “y’all"?Probably in southern small towns. Where I’m from is more northern, and here, the trend is bad grammar. You’ll hear the most respectable people saying things like, “I seen that somewhere,” or “I haven’t went to the fair yet.” It makes me cringe every time.
4. What the heck is 4-H/FFA? Glad you asked. 4-H is an organization, or rather a series of organizations, dedicated to youth development. Or at least that’s what their flyers say. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems to be more of a farming club than anything else. But what do I know? Which brings me to FFA: Future Farmers of America, which definitely is a farming club. FFA members have very nice blue uniforms that they wear for special FFA occasions, but you'll know them around any small town high school by their camouflage and boots.
5. Is everybody a Christian conservative in small towns? Well, you definitely do have your fair share of people who fit this description. But I met many people in high school who were of different religions and affiliated with different political mindsets. There’s a little bit of everything, but Christian conservatives are indeed pretty dominant.
6. Is “yee yee” actually something people say? I’ve heard it on more than a few occasions.
7. Do you ever see farm animals out and about? Eh, sometimes. I try to stay away from the backroads where cow crossing signs exist (not joking), so I don’t know how necessary those actually are. Once I saw a sheep running in the middle of the road, but that’s really all I can recall.
8. How uncultured are people in small towns? Well, once I was looking at movies at CVS and vocalized my disappointment that there were so many Audrey Hepburn movies remaining on the rack. The woman next to me responded, “Who’s that?”
9. Is "Drive Your Tractor to School Day" a real thing? It is very much a real thing. And it almost made me late for school once.
