The day I left my small town to attend college in a "big city" brought overwhelming feelings of monachopsis and alienation. One day I woke up and had pigs to feed and cows to show and the next day I walked to class in a concrete jungle. I lived in a blue collar, lily white, small town my entire life and now I have to leave my familiar surroundings to once again, return to the big city.

My first day apart from my hometown was extremely eye-opening and getting acquainted with such unfamiliar territory was difficult. I had never met so many people with such diverse backgrounds and different ethnicities. I came from a high school with a 95% White demographic so needless to say college was a culture shock.

One of the worst things about transitioning from a small town to the city is the claustrophobia. I have never lived so close to so many people. My home is on a farm with acres of corn surrounding me and the only neighbors I really have are my cows.

Growing up in a predominately agricultural area I assumed (generally) people were somewhat educated on what actually went down on a farm -- boy was I wrong! Some of my newly acquired friends seriously thought pigs were pink or couldn't tell me the difference between a steer and a heifer. It was kind of sad really to find out how poorly educated the general population was on the basics of agriculture. In addition to the unfortunate fact that people are ill-educated when it comes to anything agriculture, none of my friends seem to understand how much hard work and time go into farming. They don't understand why (or how I could possibly want to) miss the first weekend of partying to show my animals at my state fair or that "bring your tractor to school day" in high school was a normal thing where I come from.

It was hard moving from a town where you were more likely than not to get stuck behind a tractor to a town with bumper to bumper traffic. It's been an experience and I love college but I love my cows more -- I think I'll always be a small town girl.