I come from a small town hardly anyone has ever heard of. When people ask me where I am from I hold up my hand and point to the middle of what we Michiganders call “The Mitten”. I then proceed to describe my town as being about an hour from Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Lansing. Thinking these may be cities foreigners have heard of. I tend to describe my town as being far enough away from every big city that you don’t want to drive there for a decent mall, yet your town has close to nothing to offer so you reluctantly stick to the same two places to buy your things from. I also occasionally explain to people that “It’s somewhere you’d retire if you don’t mind the cold, but not somewhere to explore your life and grow in. I can see myself going back years from now, but no time soon.”
I come from a small town named Jackson, with roughly the same population as the entirety of FAU. Moving from a small town where I can take the same route everyday to a city that I will never know my way around has definitely changed who I am. This city and new life of mine has not only changed how I view myself and my future goals in life, but what I really want out of my time here in college and beyond into growing into an adult. Today I am ending the first week of my second semester of my Freshman year in college. Thus far I have had the privilege of exploring and partaking in so many things I know I could’ve never thought of doing back home. From making more friends than I even know the names of, to obtaining an actual job, to exploring a whole new state of life with my best friend; I feel confident in the majority of my choices I have had to make so far as an emerging adult.
Along this twisted and often stressful journey of living up to the college experience there are certain things moving over 1,300 miles has changed in me and has made me realize I actually miss about my hometown and previous life.
1. I understand that I have always had way too many siblings, but now I truly know what it means to miss each and everyone of them.
2. As there were in high school, there are no sick days or snow days in college. No matter how much I may wish for it to happen the most I am going to see out of Florida weather is a hurricane, not snow.
3. My mom is no longer my personal secretary there to remind me to take my pills, force me to take medicine when I am sick, schedule my doctors and dentist appointments, and to yell at me to get out of bed in the morning.
4. When I am bored, I’m bored. That’s it. It’s just me here in my dorm and back home there are 10 other people between my two houses that would have entertained me.
5. I use to find my mom’s and dad’s texts and calls just to see how school was going annoying, but the occasional “Hope your day was good” or “I’m just calling to see how life is” is actually nice to hear every now and again.
6. Sometimes I don’t want it to take 20 minutes just to get 5 minutes down the highway. I will probably never drive in Florida unless it’s just on the highway headed home.
7. No matter how much my younger siblings hate my mom’s “weird” or “gross” cooking, I would really love some home cooked lasagna or enchiladas right about now.
8. I feel as though I need to get my own place soon enough, that way I can wake up in the morning and just sit at a table eating cereal alone in an actual home.
9. I know most kids nowadays don’t even know what a board game is, but I really miss family game nights so much that every time I visit home now I feel my family has to have one.
10. I feel as though I packed way too many things for college, yet I have no idea what I even left in the 20 boxes that are sitting in my mom’s basement. I need to sell at least half my things sometime soon.
The list goes on. I have now been living away from home for almost 5 months and have visited home 3 times within those 5 months for holidays and a surprise hurricane evacuation. Every time I visit I only cherish it more and more as I know soon enough the visits will shorten and a few years from now the amount of times I will be able to visit will be limited. I understand I chose to move across the country, but thankfully for mine and my parents sake it was Florida not California. I have now driven home more times than I can count and luckily it’s only a “quick” 20 hour drive half of which being Florida and annoying Georgia filled with traffic in Atlanta every time. As I stated, the list of things that I have learned or grown to miss about being a child in a small town is way longer than 10, but if I were to list them all out this article would then turn into a book.
Sometimes as I am walking across campus to my next class or just going on a walk I stare up into the sky in amazement that I actually live where I do. Home may seem far away most days, but I guess you could say I am one of the adventurous ones. I accomplished one of my goals of leaving my town for college and I couldn’t be any more thrilled for my life ahead of me. Jackson may be small with much less to offer than where I am now, but it’s growing and who knows I may retire there someday as opposed to everyone else who will be dreaming of moving here.
