All my life I couldn’t wait to get out of my small town, but now that I’m in my second semester of my freshmen year, I miss it and can’t wait to be back home for the summer. I grew up in a small town in Kansas with a population of approximately 9,300 people. While this isn't nearly the smallest town in Kansas, it was small enough for me to know most people in my high school and run into multiple people every time I left my house.

That was exactly why I wanted to leave; I hated knowing everyone in my town and how everyone got into each others' business, but after being at college for almost a year, I miss it. While it was annoying seeing people whenever I went to Walmart to just grab one thing and you look like crap, it also gave a feeling of comfort and safety. Knowing that no matter where I was in that town nothing would happen to me. Living in a much larger college town I don't get that sense of security very often.

I'm one of seven students from my graduating class that came to this university. While our home town is only two hours away, many people go to the one of the other two major universities or go to a community college for the first two years. This is mainly because our town is very conservative, and the university I attend and the city it is in is very liberal in comparison.

With the exception of one of my fellow high school classmates that came up here as well, I have only seen them a handful of times. While most of us weren't best friends or hung out on a regular basis, we all were friendly to each other in classes and I sometimes miss seeing the other students I went to school with most of my life.

Another aspect of small town life I miss is the lack of traffic, I feel like it takes forever to get anywhere in my college town whereas my home town or even the adjacent city has practically no traffic unless it was rush hour, and even then it was only terribly busy on one main road because of on-going construction. Although I have only lived up here seven months, I can honestly say that I will eventually move back to a smaller suburb mostly due to the fact that I hate driving in traffic.

While I grew up hating my small town, after leaving it I can see why it was actually a great place to have grown up. I was able to go to school with the same kids pre-school through senior year, I could walk to and from middle school, the first house I lived in was even right across from a giant park and our city lake, so my mom was able to take my brother and I there more often than most kids. In fact, my brother and I's name can be found on a post at that park because my dad helped build it.

I may not ever move back home to my little town permanently, but I hope to find someplace similar when I'm ready to settle down. I couldn't imagine not living in a small town and not allowing my future kids to have the same experiences that I did growing up.