I remember the day I left for college perfectly. It was a summer Sunday morning, and the sun had still not risen completely. I stacked my plastic storage bins into the back of my parent’s Jeep, said goodbye to my dog and finally buckled myself into an over packed car. As I sat in that cramped back seat, I remember staring out the window as I drove down my block for what would be the last time until Thanksgiving. I can still remember that empty feeling I had inside as I drove out of the suburbs.

Growing up, I never truly appreciated where I lived. They say “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” and boy, did I find out that saying is true. Looking back now, I couldn’t have imagined a childhood without my suburban town. So many memories were made on long bike rides down tree lined blocks, and many long conversations were held in the back of elementary school parking lots just before sunset.

When I started to meet new people during my first few weeks of college, I began to realize that not everyone had grown up in the same environment as I did. The suburban innocence I had was completely nonexistent in so many people. They were raised in cities, teaching them to skip adolescence, and be independent at a young age. Some were raised in the country, where houses were miles away from each other, never making memories with the neighborhood kids. Others grew up in beach houses, spending every day with their feet in the sand and every night with drinks in their hands.

As I like to put it, I have a nostalgia for the suburbs. It is the place to experience a little bit of everything. Your first kiss on the wooden bench of the local park. Those two a.m. walks with your best friend talking about what life is going to be like after we all pack up and leave. The hot afternoons spent selling lemonade on the green grass of the girl who lived around the corner from you. Driving aimlessly in a crowded car looking for anything interesting happening on those familiar streets you’ve known all your life. It’s a childhood us small town kids all experienced as we grew up into adolescence and even young adulthood. These memories have helped us grow and will always be with us no matter where we end up in the future.

I owe the suburbs credit for making me who I am today. I believe that where you’re from instills a lot of important values in you. If I would have been a beach child, a city walker, or even a farmer’s daughter, I would be a completely different person that I am right now. I grew up in the perfect place to be a kid, to learn my wrongs from rights, and to experience the real world without growing up too quickly.

As I grew up, I never really considered my surroundings to be a factor of the person I would become. Sometimes, you have to leave home for a while in order to appreciate it.