Dear Reader,

You might have clicked on this link because you, too, know all too well the struggles of residing in a small town. You may come from a place that has one stoplight. Perhaps your hometown is one that experiences traffic jams caused by tractors. Maybe in the winter, you are blessed with weeks of school cancelations because of all the snow piled up on county roads. You probably live in a place where the bank tellers know you by name or where you and your friends hang out in parking lots because there's literally nothing better to do. I bet you originate from a town whose cow population far surpasses the human population and where everybody you meet on the highway gives you that weird steering-wheel-finger-wave. You might not even know them, but you wave back. You know what I'm talking about.

I'm writing this because I know you. I have experienced the oppression of the lack of pizza delivery and the closest Walmart being thirty minutes away. I understand what it's like to have to give someone directions to your house because Google maps can't find it, and I know how it feels to know everyone in your high school's name.

I know you. You're the kid who doesn't really understand why everyone is in love with their huge vehicles or chewing tobacco or high school sports. Sure, you love your hometown for the loving community and the sweet old people you run into every now and then on the square, but you're wondering if this will be your life. Will you become an old lady who gossips at the hair salon every week? Are you going to be that farmer that only experiences joy when new parts for his truck come in? Will you be satisfied with driving half an hour just to get to church every Sunday for the rest of your life? Do you even want to go to church anymore?

There's got to be more.

I know you're struggling. Your thoughts seem to almost betray your small town upbringing. Why are you not satisfied? Why are you not like your peers who indulge themselves in bonfires every weekend?

I know you. And I know it's hard to think outside of the confines of those small city limits. It's so weird to imagine a life that doesn't mean driving half an hour just to catch a movie at the theater. I know it's hard to think of a future that may not involve your dusty back-roads. The small town girl breaking away to the city only happens in the movies. It'll never happen to me, so why think about it? Trust me, I know.

But it's possible.

I'm not here to tell you to get out. I cannot tell you how to live your life to that specific of a detail. While I know you, I don't know your entire story, and I won't pretend like I do. I cannot dictate what you need to do, and I'm certainly not here to preach that small towns are bad. I wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else.

I'm here to tell you that I don't regret leaving.

And, my goodness, it was the scariest decision. It's so comfortable, to remain in a place you know best. Questions filled my mind at the thought of leaving. What about my friends? What about my family? What if I can't sleep because I hear car horns instead of crickets? Where on earth would I even go? What if I get lost? What if I can't be found? How can I leave the place in which I grew up?

The truth is, you'll always have roots in your small hometown, but that doesn't mean you can't branch out.

What's important and what I want you to recognize is this: not everyone has to leave this small town.

Leaving isn't for everyone. Tons of people I graduated and went to high school with have stayed and are successful. There have even been a few that have gotten married. They are so happy and they are living the life they wish to lead. You know who you are. If your dream is to become a wife and settle down in the town you grew up in and have cute babies, I am so here for that and encourage you to do so. If you truly want to take over the local family business, go for it. If your dream, however, is to become a famous filmmaker, I assure you it won't happen in your town that has one or two gas stations. If your dream is to attend Harvard, you get that awesome ACT and LSAT score. Study hard, get your degree. Your dream can happen if you work for it. Trust me. I know it's hard to get your foot in the door in this terrifying world, but once you do I promise you won't regret it. If I can do it, you definitely can.

You need to live the life that's good for you. And if you're anxious about leaving, but you know that's what you want to do, you have to go through with it or you'll be kicking yourself. Don't let the anxiety of a new place psyche you out. Don't allow fear to hold you back from living your dream. Don't let the people in the small town tell you you can't be what you want.

I had way too many people tell me I couldn't when I knew could, and I had way too many people tell me I can't, yet here I am.

At this point in your life, you're gaining some idea of who you are as a person. It was about my sophomore year of high school that I knew I was a big fish in a little pond, and I hated that. I wanted to go to a place where nobody knew me or my story or what I get on my Subway sandwich. I needed a change of scenery, and I wanted a college degree. So I left, and I went to college.

As a college student, I think I'm qualified to say that college is not for everyone. That's totally cool. Luckily, there are several post-high school options out there for people. A guy I graduated with is now a Marine and has seen far more of the world than anyone else we went to school with. One girl my age hated all things academic, and just wanted to weld and have a nice car, so she went to a welding institute for a couple of months, and now she's making so much that I'm seriously considering getting in touch with her and asking if she can pay my phone bill. She has a 2015 Chevy Camaro, by the way.

You are capable of so much, regardless of what your environment tells you. Don't let the scoffs or eye rolls get you down.

"You? Going to college? Ha!"
"You know how expensive it is, right?"
"The Navy, huh? Have fun signing your life over to the government?"
"You really think someone like you can survive the big city?"
"Be practical."
"Chasing your dreams won't get you a job."

You'll encounter so many roadblocks in the form of people who want to discourage you and get you down. From what I've experienced in my life, those seem to be the people who had opportunities to get out and didn't take them: the aspiring dentists who didn't complete school. The wannabe actress who decided to inherit the family farm instead. The washed-up school teacher who settled for a job when really he wanted to play music. Don't grow up to be one of those people. Aspire to succeed and achieve your dreams, and someday you'll find yourself lifting young people up to do the same.

Your self-doubt doesn't control you. You control you, and, if it's your desire to do so, you can make it out. You can travel the world, you can get your doctorate in philosophy, you can literally do what you wish to do. You just have to let yourself.

I'm here to encourage you to do what you wish to do. Not what your parents want you to do or what your friends or high school counselor convinces you to do. Your life is about you.

Leaving is good. Leaving is healthy. It can benefit you in ways that you don't even know exist yet. I never thought I would do well anywhere that wasn't my little house in the middle of nowhere, but I am thriving and feel homesick whenever I leave my dorm. You become exposed to things you want to see and things you don't, and every obstacle from there on out that you run into will only make you a better person. There are so many possibilities for you, and you have the world at your feet. When you walk across the stage to get your diploma, you have the capability to walk into so many good things if you just let yourself leave. You can do it. It is possible.

If you know that journeying from your hometown to bigger, better, scarier things is right for you, don't hold yourself back. Wiggle out of the clutches of your hometown, let people question how you're going to manage on your own, mess up a few times but always get back up on your feet. Most importantly, prove everyone who said you couldn't do it wrong. That's one of my favorite hobbies. I believe in you.

Love,
A Small Town Escapee