Once upon a time, a young farm girl from Hicktown, USA moved to the big city...and it was a struggle.
That young farm girl? That was me. Everyone is surprised by it, and it's probably because I don't prance around in overalls and work boots everyday. That is literally how I am stereotyped sometimes.
Many people misunderstand me when I try and talk about the farm, and at times, I feel as though I was raised in a different time period entirely. The things I have grown up knowing as ordinary seem to become the extraordinary to everyone I surrounded myself with.
For example:
1. A small percentage of people actually know what a combine is.
The thing that harvests the crops? The crops that are probably essential to your everyday life? That thing.
2. Everyone assumes that all farmers are livestock farmers.
People inevitably ask, "So you grew up with cows, pigs, sheep and goats?" And you have try desperately to hold back your Shrek-esque screams of, "No!" Therefore you respond with, "Yes, all of the above."
3. Most people are appalled by the idea of "Drive Your Tractor To School Day."
It's real. I did not partake, but it's real.
4.. The number of times I've had to explain what the term "acre" means is unreal.
Acre [noun]: a unit of land area equal to 4,840 square yards.
5. People always want to visit the farm like it's some sort of amusement park.
I'll be happy to show you around if you quit asking like my life is similar to a video you watched in your seventh grade agriculture class. (If you even had an agriculture class?)
6. Because I grew up on a farm, everyone pictures me as a milkmaid.
I still can't braid my own hair.
7. The smart boys are a little nicer to me because they're wanting to get into the farm business.
8. Some people are under the impression that we live in a barn.
I probably could live in our barn, but we have a house, too.
9. Most don't understand that antique tractors are collectibles and are not used by farmers today.
Contrary to popular belief.
10. Everyone sings you the "Farmer's Daughter" song.
It was endearing the first 300 times, but I get the point.
Regardless of the tribulations that us farm kids face moving into big, urban cities -- you can't deny the feeling of satisfaction when you see your first cornfield on the route home. When you catch the scent of some nearby bean dust and the sunset gleams off of a grain bin, you somehow internally know that everything is right in the world. You're home.
