From Boondocks to Big City: The Journey’s Been Worth It

Small town Wisconsin: think dirt roads, cows, 2,000 people and a 45-minute drive to the closest McDonalds. If you’re from a city like Milwaukee, there is a chance you have never met someone from a town like this because they never leave. I understand that it’s a huge change to live in a city with a population that is 300 times bigger than your hometown, but it is so important to do it for at least a while. If your graduating class had fewer than 100 people, my advice to you is to go to college in a big city.

I come from a small town, and I honestly didn’t understand what the “real world” was like when I came to Milwaukee. In my hometown, all of my friends basically had the same beliefs and backgrounds as me. Going to a college like UW-Milwaukee, you will make more friends of different races, religions and cultures in one month than you have in your whole life. After a while, you stop thinking of people of different races as “black people” or “Asian people”, and they just become “people”. You begin to have an open mind and become more accepting.

The number one perk of going to school in a big city like Milwaukee is the number of opportunities. Do you have dreams of making it big with a major company? Apply to work at some of the many companies the city has to offer. Do you like sports? Check out a Bucks or Brewers game. Do you like literally any kind of music? You’ll be able to find something you’re interested in at Summerfest. Do you like going to the beach? Of course you do, and there are plenty of options along the beautiful Lake Michigan.

It might be hard at first, I can’t deny that. For one thing, you won’t meet that many people that will actually understand how small of a town you came from. It’ll be weird going from knowing everyone and their middle name in every class to not knowing anyone in your 200-person lecture. You also might get some weird looks when you smile at everyone you walk by on the sidewalk out of habit…they don’t do that in cities. It’s the best of both worlds, though. You have small town roots to fall back on and a supportive community to come home to, but you also have endless possibilities to be successful.