My entire life, I have lived in a small town. Born and raised Wisconsinite, in a tiny town called Algoma. You have probably never heard of it unless you have gone to Door County, but even then maybe you do not remember it. Our population is around 3,000 people, resting on the shore of Lake Michigan. I go back and forth in my head trying to decide how I really feel about the place I call home. There are so many wonderful qualities about Algoma that make me truly proud, but then I move to a bigger city for college and everything is different.
Growing up in a small town is really great. I get to know all of my teachers, neighbors, classmates, church members, etc. And not only do I know who each of these people are, but also things about them that you might not know about each of them if you were living in a bigger city. Sure, I do not know EVERYONE. I mean, 3,000 is a relatively big number. But I do know that there is not a single person in my school that I do not know the name of. My graduating class was one of the largest classes since nearly the time my mom was in school, and we only had about 70 students.
Because everyone knows each other, we can always tell when new kids come to our school, when new neighbors move in a few blocks away, and especially when someone local passes away. Because we are all so close and our town is so small, a few things in particular often happen..
- If you have a new neighbor moving in, it is very common to stop by and offer to help move them in, bring them a dish of food, or even just drop by to say hi.
- When you are young, you play with everyone - the kid next door is your friend, the girl who lives next to the park is your friend, your classmates from school are your friends. Nobody is left out when you are little, and you know ALL of the kids.
- You see your classmates everywhere. Sarah works at the gas station, Jimmy works at Subway, and you work at the local cafe. No matter where you go, even driving downtown, you are most likely going to see one of your schoolmates.
- You can barely get away with anything. Unless you have a super cool mom (and mine is pretty cool), you can not get away with anything. Brooklen’s mom Linda WILL tell your mom what you were doing at Josh’s house the other night when she overhears you and Brooklen talking about it in the basement.
- BUT because all of the moms, for the most part know each other, you can hang out with anyone at anytime. Unless you have a curfew, however (good luck getting out of that one).
- When you are little you love to go out shopping with mom regardless of whether you live in a small town or a big one, but when it comes to your teenage years you kind of want to do your own thing. When you live in a small town, that is not the case. You practically jump at the chance to get to drive 45+ minutes to get to Green Bay. Green Bay is about 35x more populated than Algoma and is filled with things to do.
Though growing up in a small town was a great experience, there are aspects of life I feel like I missed out on. Sure, we had some opportunities to travel and take advanced classes, but not nearly as many as I could have had living in a larger city. I grew up being shy because something traumatic happened in my life at a young age. I knew that everyone would eventually hear about what happened, but I was not ready for people to poke and prod me about it. To this day, I am still fighting to become more open as a person.
Moving to Milwaukee was a HUGE adjustment for me. But all in all, it was the most freeing moment of my life. I now often look back on my past and can see how much I have changed. I know I have grown, but parts of me are still back in Algoma hoping things stay intact, while the rest of me holds on to the idea that more change is to come. And this change will only get better and better.
