Friday, May 25, 2007

Interview

Question: Why did you choose the topic you did for your blog?

Answer: I chose to write about coming from a small town to a big city because it’s basically the most important thing that’s going on in my life right now. The transition from a small town to a college was huge for me. I had to get use to living on my own and also I had to get use to the city as well. Being able to talk about the small town I came from is fun for me. I love where I come from and to be able to tell others about my small town and hopefully get responses about how they can or can not relate is what I wanted. I also chose this topic because it’s easy to write about, I knew I could get a lot from it and not get stuck trying to think of something new to write about.

Question: What do you hope that people can gain from your blog?

Answer: I hope that people can learn about how it is hard to go from a small farming community to a big city, and how hard it is to adjust to the change. I hope that somehow my blogs may help another person out if they are going through the same situation, and for them to know that their not the only ones feeling lost or getting use to the same transition.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

You Know You're From a Small Town When....

I always seem to get emails that have a similar theme of “You Know you’re from a Small Town When” that I always enjoy reading, mostly because I can relate to almost all of the email. I came across another list of these points so I figured I share some along with some I made up also!

The following are from http://www.dobhran.com/humor/GRhumor647-ea.htm

1) You can name everyone you graduated with.
2) You know what 4-H is.
3) You ever went to parties at a pasture, barn, or in the middle of a dirt road.
4) You schedule parties around the schedule of different police officers, since you know which ones would bust you and which ones wouldn't.
5) You ever went cow-tipping or snipe hunting.
6) You can't help but date a friend's ex-girlfriend(or boyfriend).
7) Your car stays filthy because of the dirt roads, and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason.

The next couple are some that I have thought up when thinking of my small town!

1) Your school believes you when you say you’re late to school because you got stuck behind a tractor.
2) When you stand in the middle of the only intersection in your town and you can see all four signs welcoming you into the town.
3) You have to driven twenty minuets to get to the nearest grocery.
4) It’s normal to see a golf cart driving down the middle of the road going to pick up their mail.
5) You can walk from the ballpark to your house by walking through the cornfield.
6) The annual Whiffleball tournament is the biggest attraction of the year.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Friendships....

I can’t stop thinking about how I have to leave all my friends from school in about 4 weeks. Every time I think about leaving school and moving back home for the summer, I start to freak out. I can’t imagine my summer without the friends I have now, whom all have become very close to me and have become my best friends. I think about how different I am now than I was when I first moved to college. I feel as if when I go home and see my friends from high school that we won’t have that bond anymore and I’m afraid that we won’t be as close. Obviously we all won’t be as close having spent a year apart at different schools, but I am scared that I’ll loose those friendships along with the ones I made from college.

I am looking forward however to going back home for the summer. I miss my small community and also my family. I know that once the summer starts and I get into a routine that everything with friends will be ok. Yet, I still feel like next year when we go back to school the friends that I have now won’t be as close to me anymore. I’m sure that I am just over reacting but I can’t help think of loosing my friends that I have made this year because they just mean that much too me.

Small Town vs. City Life (Essay #2)

The blog that I have found describes the authors experience in living in a small town and also in a city. Throughout the essay he mentions that he loves the small town and also the city. I found this blog by looking for the same idea as my blog topic and I came across a blog page named “Thought Blog, Reflections off the Dysfunctional Meta Thread (semi-realized?).” The URL to this blog is http://gaurang.org/%20blog/archives/%202005/05/small_town_life.html. The title of the blog post was “Small Town Life vs. City Life,” I knew that when I read that I would be able to relate to that the blog. I feel like I can relate to the author because I also grew up in a small town and am now transitioning into the city life. I grew up in a small town named Wren, which only has a population of roughly two-hundred people. Most people from the high school that I went to didn’t even know where Wren was or that there was even a town like that near our school. I now am transitioning to the city life by going to college, and mainly focusing on getting to the OSU campus in Columbus.

In the blog “Small Town Life vs. City Life,” the author talks about a town that they just visited in Brownsville, Texas. He describes the town and then talks about how the town he grew up in is a lot like Brownsville. The author describes the small town life as “having an air of satisfaction and content.” He says that there is a closeness to the small town life and that it is peaceful and content. He then goes on to describing the city life that he has also experienced. He mentioned that city life may offer better material for quality of life and better opportunities for people who want to be rich and achieve big things, but city culture seems to say “Everybody is for himself.” The main point of his blog is that cities are cutting edge they always have new ideas and products, whereas small towns are just trying to catch up slowly to the cities which they are never able to do at least in the short term.

When the author talks about the small town he was in, he describes all the restaurants like Subway and McDonalds and also hotels and theatres that are in the town. Our definition of small towns must be very different because the small town where I am from has nothing that he has described. The only restaurant that we have is a small bar. We don’t even any theaters or hotels either, and the only major structure we have is a small fire station.

I agree with the author when he talks about small towns having “an air of satisfaction and content.” Small towns have a very close community where anyone would help another person, no matter the task. He talks about how people are not trying to outsmart each other and they just come together as friends and neighbors. The town that I live in is exactly like what he described. Everyone gets along and knows each other and nothing is a competition. Everyone loves our small town, which is why we try to take care of all of it.

I definitely agree with his point of view of city life, how it is about making new products and doing bigger and better things everyday. I feel as if city life may be too busy and self centered for me. It does seem like everyone is working for themselves and not for, or even with, each other. I do like the city, but I’m not sure if I could live in a city for a long period of time or even work in a big city. It seems like everyone has a sense of distance between them because they are all competing to become bigger and better in everything they do. I do not think I could stand that. I like the feeling of being friends with everyone around me and knowing everyone that lives around me.

At the end of the blog the author post the question “The ambitious and individualistic city life; the content, peaceful, collective town life; which one would you choose?” I know which one I would choose. I would choose the small peaceful, collective town life. I just feel more comfortable when I think of living the rest of my life in a small town. That does not mean I would not live in a big city for a couple of years, but I do not think I could live the rest of my life in a big city. Mostly because I would always worry about the safety of my home and myself. Small towns just have a comfortable feel to them. Like a comfort zone that I do not want to let go of for forever.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Hard to believe...

It still amazes me how one of my friends can’t comprehend how small of a town I actually come from. Even though I can’t comprehend how big of a town she’s from either. We were talking today at lunch and telling different stories about our home towns and such when she started talking about different events that she went through while riding the city bus in jr.high. She went through some scary situations, some that I can’t even imagine going through or even actually happening. She told us about one time on the bus on her way home the SWAT team came on the bus with guns and everything to get this guy to take his hands out of his pockets. The man then ran out of the back of the bus with the SWAT team right behind him. I can’t believe that, it would have been so scary. I have no idea what I would have done.
We then started talking about how nothing like that would ever happen in Wren or in a surrounding town. It’s so hard to think about dangerous things happening like that everyday and just being use to it like she is. All the while our friend can’t believe how small our town really is and how trusting we are of our neighbors. The only thing ‘bad’ that has happened in Wren was that someone tried to break into the ballpark concession stand and steal the money. I know, not a huge crime, but it was a big enough for our small town.