Some background on me: I grew up in a little "nowhere" town, technically a "village" in the wide open valley rages of northeast Nebraska. The town has a population in the 600's, and my high school class graduated with a grand total of 7 students, including myself. It's a rural farming community: no stop lights, more than an hour away from any department stores, fast food, or movie theaters, and everybody knows everybody by name. As a senior in high school, I was excited to move on the more urban setting of Lincoln, Nebraska to begin my life as a true Husker and the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Everyone thought I would be in complete culture shock, but the things I noticed were more unexpected than that.
1. New beginnings...every day
Unlike back home, nobody knows you. There are so many people around that every day is a fresh start. It's an opportunity to learn about and make friends with people of all kinds of different backgrounds and lifestyles. Not to mention, you can completely biff it while not paying attention to where you're going and totally live it down because chances are, you'll never see any of the witnesses again.
2. New habits
"Oh..sorry, I guess my keys are inside the house," (or your personal variation of that). Where I come from is so close-knit that people don't lock their cars, and when I first started making trips back home from college, I found myself constantly locked out of my own car, running back inside to grab my keys because I kept locking it without thinking. Moving away makes you realize the once commonplace habits that you unknowingly replaced.
3. Stocking up is a thing of the past
You only need to buy what you need at the time, because it's not a long drive away. No more buying more than you need just to make sure you don't run out before the next trip.
4. New experiences
New restaurants. New people. Activities and events you've never even heard of, and when you finally hit 21..the downtown bar scene!
5. Lecture halls...so what?
I literally couldn't go through a conversation about my college choice without someone mentioning the large class sizes. The doubt about how well I would be able to handle it became annoying after awhile. Honestly, I was a few days into college before I actually took a look back at my full lectures and thought..."Hmm..I guess there are a couple hundred people in here." The class size hadn't phazed me at all. It's completely what you make of it; you can sit all the way in the back, daze off, and whine when things get tough. Or, you can sit closer to the front, make friends, ask for help, and get to know your professors a bit.
6. People take things too seriously
A lot of people grew up with more conveniences than you. For the most part, they didn't have to "make due" or get creative when they ran out of/didn't have something they needed to finish that recipe, project, etc. I found city life to be a little more high-strung than the countryside living I was used to.
7. New frustration: the radio stations back home
Alright, so..they actually do play a LOT of country music on the radio back home. I can get down with it for awhile, but there is only so much twang before I'm searching through my iPhone library.
8. Scenery is actually pretty cool
After all that time of concrete, cars and houses, I forgot how many stars there are at night and how beautiful and peaceful those untouched fields and hills are. You just need a little of that from time to time to remind yourself who you are.
9. Common courtesy
I'm sure not every small town experience was like mine, but one major shocker when I got to college: Wow, guys actually hold the door open for me from time to time rather than slamming it in my face. When you grow up with the same people from Pre-K to Senior year, you get more of the brother/sister type of relationship than the fellow student (or human) one.
10. You're proud of your roots
All in all, going off to college helps you realize what growing up in a small town really gave you. Transitioning to a new setting helps you see who you truly are and become the person you want to be. Of course, you'll keep some of those new-found pieces of yourself that you discovered during your new college life. But, I bet you'll also end up keeping a few more of those middle of nowhere pieces than you originally thought.
