Statistics show 20 percent of Americans today grew up, or currently live in a small town. While growing up in such a homey community was an immense blessing, it also had its downsides.
After having lived in a small town for the majority of my childhood, and teenage years, I personally feel as if it can be difficult to be who you truly are while trying to maintain a positive reputation and please all of your small town fans. After living away from my small hometown for a year, and attending a school with 66,000 people, I have realized the impact that living in a bigger city has had on the person that I want to freely be without judgment.
While I truly love my small hometown, and the loving community that it is, throughout high school I didn't feel like I could do anything without judgment. Everyone knows everything, and everyone knows what the other is doing. Neighbors knew who I was with or where I was based on what car was parked in my driveway. Spending time with friends was often spent gossiping like high school girls do because there wasn't much else to do.
My mindset has also become much more open in the time that I have spent away from home. In a small town, the local HEB seems to be the hotspot where you see everyone. I literally can't remember a time iIsuccessfully made it through the grocery store without seeing someone I or my parents knew. The small conversations that would take place in these interactions was often a quick gossip session, and the conversations tend to be one-sided. Being in a place with so many different types of people has complexity opened my mind to how other people lives are, and different ways of thinking.
Moving away to college, while scary at the time, was one of the most refreshing things I could have done for myself. Nobody knew me, I still see a new face every day, and I have found people who love me for who I really am, even when I'm not trying to "fit in" or please anyone to be "cool."
Leaving my small town caused me to be able to be able to find myself, and who I truly want to be. When you live in a small town, it can seem like there are set expectations in your life sometimes, or like people have a checklist of things that they expect from you by a certain age or stage of your life. You know how it goes: graduate high school, go to college, graduate college, get a steady job right after graduation (and hopefully you'll be engaged), get married, and have kids. I no longer feel as if I have this set checklist of expectations on my life, and I have a bucket list that consists of such more than having a steady job (still important) and getting married. Blame it on leaving that small town mindset behind, or blame it on personal growth, but either way moving away has changed me into who I am today.
Don't get me wrong, I love my hometown. Some of the people here are people I know I will have forever, and I am thankful to have had such close-knit community to grow up in. What I'm trying to say is, after I got away from my small town for a year, I came back this summer an individual instead of part of the small town mainstream society, and I love what it has done for me. However, even if it is only for a few months, escape your small town for a little bit.
Get away and allow yourself to become who you truly are without the pressure of impressing others on your shoulders.
