I have lived in the same town, in the same house surrounded by the same people for almost my entire life. The longest I've even been away from home was three weeks. I have never been without friends, without family, been completely alone or knew absolutely no one. I've never had to be out of my comfort zone like that before.

That all changes for me in less than two months, and it won't be for a mere three weeks. I am moving away for years, not days, to a city I've spent all of three days in. I'm going with my best friend, so I will know one person...one out of a million.

I live in a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone. If you're driving down the road, then you're more than likely to wave at one or more people you know. Here the pharmacists have known you since you were little. Your best friend lives just down the road. If you work at a store (one of the five things in town), then your co-workers quickly turn into your family and every customer gets to know you. They become the friends you see on a weekly (and/or daily) basis, even when you're not at work. Your family gathers at the same house every Christmas just 15 minutes from your house. Almost everyone went to the same middle and high school.

Some of us can't wait to get away from this -- a 'dead-beat town' where everyone knows your business. Where you're stuck doing the same thing surrounded by the same people, day in and day out. Where there's nothing for you to do. Where you feel like you can't grow. I can understand that. I can understand the desire to get out and never go back. To try and see the world, go on an adventure and to grow beyond that dinky town that has trapped you for so long.

However, adventures come at a cost. I will never be OK with abandoning the family I've made here. It's soothing to be surrounded by beautiful open spaces, avoiding entirely the cramped and compacted feeling of a big city, even if it means the closet grocery store is 30 minutes away. It's reassuring to be able to go out and see someone that brightens your day, who cares about how you're doing, even if it's when you're going to get milk at your drug store. It's refreshing to be able to slow down, sit back and relax with those you care for.

In big cities, people go about their business without a second glance towards one another. The pace starts fast and only gets faster. Everything and everyone is in tight quarters. I'm not sure if it's possible to have a community as close (except in proximity), as caring and as strong as what my small town has. I'm not sure how I will handle being alone and being parted from that. I want to believe that everywhere has the kind of people that I love so much. That hope, that desire is a large part of what is going to make or break my move.

Some people can make friends everywhere, bouncing around the country happily. Some people live their entire lives in the same town, the same state, never once traveling. What I want to do is learn the middle ground. What I hope to do is put down roots wherever I go, no matter how big or how small. What I desperately want is to have everything I have now, there. It may be hard and it may take time, but it will definitely be different. I know, though, that on some level I will be able to create in that big city what I have created here, in my tiny little town. It will never be the same and part of me is counting on it.