I was born and raised in a small town called Spring Grove Illinois. If anyone has ever been there you will know that all you see is cows and corn. This has made me grow up more as a “country girl” vs City girl thus moving to the city for college was sort of a shock to me. Here are some of the main differences I've noticed in not only the city around me but within myself.

1. What you do on a day to day basis does not matter as much as before.

What I mean by this is that in my small town of a graduating class is 196 as the biggest, everyone knew if you sneezed the wrong way. What you did got around town in less than 20 minutes because everyone knew everyone.

This is amazing for building friendships but not as much fun when you fall flat on your face getting up from English… as where in Milwaukee someone could hit me in the face with a door (yes that really happened to me) and no one besides the door guy and myself would know about that. Both sides of this have there pros and cons but hey that's life.

2. Something is always going on

In my town, the biggest thing was ‘friday night under the lights’ which is what we called our football games. Now don’t get me wrong as a marching band geek (Baritone for two years then switched to color guard) I loved these Friday nights. The only thing is that was pretty much all we had to do unless you wanted to drive a half hour plus to get to the nearest mall.

Here I can walk 5 minutes and there will be some interesting new place to explore and experience. It helps immensely that UWM provides bus passes for their students, that means I can just hop on the gold line and end up at the zoo or the rave.

3. Food options!!

This one might not seem like a big deal to most people but let me tell you, one of the biggest things in my town was getting a McDonalds. We finally had a hangout besides Jewel Osco. Milwaukee has so many yummy places you can go to eat. Some of my personal favorites being Mo’s Irish pub, who have burgers to die for, and Pizza Man, which is a pretty affordable fancy pizza place. Every place here has their own unique twist to them and I love it.

4. People are shocked you know about farms

I grew up riding horses bareback and working on farms. This shocks so many people how I casually talk about barn sitting and getting slapped by a chicken wing. To me, these are normal everyday experiences yet I have met people who have never even seen a cow.

5. Manners

What I mean is that in my town yeah some people were mean but we still did not have too many worries. I’ve been in the city for about 5 months now and I still have issues not being super nice to everyone around me and not making conversation with strangers.

Where I grew up strangers were friends you haven’t made yet. I quickly learned this is not something you should do in the city yet I still catch myself offering help when I think it’s needed. That’s a part of myself I will never lose I just have learned how to turn it down a lot.

6. It’s always cold

UWM is right next to Lake Michigan so even when it seems warm and sunny it’s a lie. I have made the mistake more than once to see it's 45 or higher out with a clear sky and assume it will be warm enough for just a long sleeve. NOPE! Wind exists in the city and it will kill you.

7. Hidden Gems

Both Spring Grove and Milwaukee has these. In Spring Grove you have the state park or a bike trail from the high school that has a path leading under a bridge that all the “edgy” people will go to take photoshoots or read by the creek. In Milwaukee there's a river walk area thing near the Cambridge housing that I can already tell will be my new favorite place to go. There’s also the Domes which I have been told are amazing and I plan on a visit to them this weekend.

8. Noises

Back home my backyard is woods as where from my dorm I see the heart of campus. This proves to provide very different nighttime sounds. Back home if I open my window at midnight I hear the sounds of howling coyotes and cows mooing at the farm across the street from my house. If I open my window, there is a high chance I will hear the honking of angry drivers or the yelling of rambunctious college students. Sometimes I get graced with loud scream singing of careless whisper or I will always love you.

9. You become more expressive in the city

Back home I was seen as the rebel type of person. Doing what I want without really caring what others thought of me but some of my friends were more reclusive of how they acted in public vs private. Yes, they showed who they were but not to the full extent because again, everyone knows everyone. As for here, you can act however you want and no one will really bat an eye at you. Dying your hair a crazy color would draw so much attention at home vs here the only attention you’ll get for it is how it looks really good.

10. Traffic Jams

You might think that the only traffic that’s bad is in the city but boy are you wrong. The difference with that is the traffic jams back home are because of tractors being driven. I have actually been late to school because a tractor is being driven on the road and the people aren’t passing it. My once 8-minute drive turned into 17minutes.