I love visiting the city just as much as the next person. Places like NYC and Boston are fast paced, exciting and overall a great attraction for a day or two. But when I stop to think about it, I couldn’t be happier to have been born and raised in my small town. It has it’s consequences, sure. For example, the fact that everyone knows literally everyone else's business. News travels fast and you can’t go out for a cup of coffee at a local bakery without seeing everyone and their brother. That being said, there are still endless lessons and perks I’ve been blessed with just by growing up in the place I did.
Growing up in a small town in the smallest state was a blessing in disguise. For starters, I learned to keep my friends close. I was never the type of kid who had endless playmates; I wasn’t a part of different friend groups and I didn’t jump around from best friend to best friend too often. I had a few close friends who I knew had my back and that was all I needed. Like I said, gossip travels fast in small towns like mine which makes high school kind of hard. But living in that environment taught me to choose my friends wisely and in turn made me a better friend as well. After realizing that most of the small town rumors are just that — rumors — I was never susceptible to being overly self-conscious. I never wanted to change myself because of something I heard in the hall one day because half of the time the daily gossip just evolved into stories for entertainment.
The sense of community, sportsmanship and teamwork that I learned throughout my 18 years living in my hometown will stay with me for the rest of my life. Self-centeredness was not a highly populated trait to behold in my small hometown and I've been lucky enough that the encouragement of others in your community is just as important as your own success. I’ve learned over the years that helping your community by contributing to their dedication will often result in a similar support on the opposite end. Living in a small community created a connection and bond between myself and my fellow community members; even if I don't know them personally, I’m more than happy to support them in their endeavors.
On the topic of hard work and dedication, there’s no better place to learn lessons of working for success than in a small town. Growing up, I learned that nothing is going to come easy; whether it was with grades, extracurriculars or finding jobs, there were always people working to succeed at the same things I wanted to succeed in. I learned that while it’s okay to be competitive to reach your goals, it’s always important to keep others in mind as well.
I didn’t fully understand these lessons and how important they were until I moved away from home. In fact, I didn’t even realize that I had learned anything at all from living in a small town until the day I hauled my new college supplies up to my dorm room to create a new home for myself. Bringing my small town knowledge into my college lifestyle has been one of the biggest blessings I could have asked for transitioning into a new environment. I will forever thank my beautiful small town and all of the wonderful, supportive, sometimes annoying, people who taught me these lessons that will be with me forever.
