I graduated high school with 88 kids, kids who I had, for the most part, been with since kindergarten. We had been through everything together; the fun elementary school days, the awkward middle school years, the stressful junior year of high school, and finally senior year. All of this took place against the backdrop of our little one square mile town in Bergen County. That little town we couldn’t wait to escape from actually taught me much more than I could ever know. I realize now that I’ve left all of the important lessons that my little town has taught me.
All The Small Things
Perhaps one of the most important things I've learned from my town is to appreciate the simple moments and simple things in life. The view of the New York City skyline from Prospect Ave, the hill at the high school that is perfect for sledding, the beauty of the trees that line every street in the fall, land ate night drives to nowhere with all your friends blasting and belting Taylor Swift. It’s moments like these that I remember when I think about home. Some of the best memories I have are from middle school manhunt games at the school up the block, long nights hanging out in basements doing absolutely nothing, and summer nights around the bonfire.
All These Things That I’ve Done
Being from a small town means everyone remembers that time in fifth grade when you called the teacher mom and your awkward goth phase in eighth grade. Oh, and no one will ever forget that time that you ~insert random or awkward experience.~ That being said, if you ever tried to act cooler than or above everyone else, it just didn’t really work. This fact of small town life taught me how to keep my ego in check.
I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends
Small towns mean small schools and small schools mean knowing everybody really well, no matter if they are a peer, a teacher, or an administrator. Knowing everybody made it really easy to ask for help, and there was no fear of asking for help. Your biology teacher was never really that scary, because you probably saw her at the Stop and Shop last weekend. This also meant that if you were really good at Spanish or Biology, everyone knew, which meant people you didn’t know very well were coming up to you in the halls before homeroom for help with their homework or next period test. Being in this environment eradicated the fear of asking for help, since you knew just about everyone asking for the help you needed wasn’t quite as scary.
All of these lessons have helped me coming into college. As they say, these are the best years of your life, and we have to make the most out of it. Learning to cherish the small moments as much as the big achievements has been one of the lessons I’ve realized the most lately. I want to remember the long nights my friends and I sat in our dorm room or in the hallway, talking about nothing but also everything until the wee hours. I also want to remember performing for my university's new president's inauguration, but one does not make the other any less valuable.
I’m glad I can remember to stay humble and to congratulate everyone on his or her accomplishments, even if I am jealous. My small town taught me how to trust these people that I’ve only known for a few months with my whole life, and not to be afraid to ask them when I need something. I’m glad that the anxiety I have when emailing a professor is relatively minimal, because my small high school made me accept that sometimes, we need help.
Last fall, I couldn’t wait to leave town and start life again at college. What I could have never imagined was how much my small town prepared me, without me even knowing it, for what was ahead.
