“Be proud of your hometown. It's a big part of what makes you the person you are”

I come from a very small town in the middle of nowhere. We are called “the littlest biggest town on the map”. My graduating class was around 74 kids. I knew everyone's first, middle and last name, who their parents were and where they lived. That’s one thing that will make me sad when I leave. These are the kids you grow up with. Other than new kids here and there, you go to school with the same kids from kindergarten to senior year. These are the kids who witnessed a 10-0 football season our junior year — which at my school was a pretty big deal — and they are also the ones who I won the battle cry with during our junior and senior year.

(If you don't know what the battle cry is, it's a chant that all the classes do at pep assemblies to see who the loudest class is.)

Although, it's not only my classmates that will make it hard to leave, it's the town in general. I come from a town where everyone knows everyone, which if you're from a small town, you know that you can be good and bad. In my town, we had one stop light that was replaced by a four-way stop sign and we have one grocery store.

Being from a small town, you learn to appreciate the little things like Friday night football games under the lights and driving down back roads with the music blaring. You also learn to love the usual leisure activities everyone does such as hunting, fishing, camping, kayaking, and bonfires with your friends.

All that sounds great for the most part, right?

So why would you ever want to leave?

On the other hand, why would you want to stay?

The world is so much bigger than your small town. Imagine going to a new place where no one knows you. No one knows your backstory or anything about your life. You can create the life you wanted because you don't have a town telling you who you are. That's why I am excited for when I finally leave.

New. New everything.

New town, new friends, new job, new beginnings. It's an exciting and scary change and sometimes people would rather just stay in their hometown where everything is familiar. If that's you, just remember life begins the moment you step out of your comfort zone. However, in the words of Bon Jovi: “who says you can't go home?” Just because you leave, doesn't mean you can't come home. Everyone here says once you stick your toes in the crick, you always come back.

Yes, I said crick. It's crick, not creek. Don't argue.

All in all, when I finally leave my hometown, I’m going to be happy, sad, nervous and excited all at the same time and when the time is right later on in life, I'll be back. And you will too.