I Had No Idea

There are things that farm kids don't really realize until they leave home and move to the city.  I know I have definitely learned a lot from living in the city and then in town for the past few years while I go to school.  I've also talked to some of my friends who have had similar revelations.  I'd like to share some words of wisdom for those farm kids who will soon be graduating from high school and moving to the city.  These insights come from my personal experiences and some are corroborated by various friends.


1. Winter is hard.
I can hear every reader saying, "Well, duh," to the screen right now, but hear me out.  On the farm we tramp through snow to do chores, shoveling out the troughs before we feed grain.  We have to go out in the cold to check the calves to make sure they don't freeze at night.  When we go sledding in the pasture, we have to be careful not to hit a frozen patty.  Worst of all, we have to plow our ridiculously long driveways every time it snows lest we be blocked into our own homes.  Yes, winter is hard.  But on the farm, that's all just part of life.  When you get to the city, it really gets bad.  Let me give a few examples.  In the city:

• there are no tractors; you have to shovel everything by hand or face a fine from the city.  (Hint: Never live on a corner lot; it'll double the amount of shoveling you have to do.)
• if the ice builds up on your sidewalk, you have to remove it or face a fine.  That's a lot harder than it sounds.  Also, ice builds up a lot faster than you might expect.  I mean, you step on a patch of snow, come back an hour later, and it's ice.  
• residential areas get plowed last (okay, so do country roads), and none of the neighbours have tractors to do it themselves.
• the snow doesn't stay white.  It gets all brown and nasty (sounds like the corrals, but it's not like that at all) and slushy, so instead of a winter wonderland, you end up with a winter yuckyland.
• some houses don't have a garage, so you have to park outside on the street.  Then, if you want to go anywhere, you have to brush the snow off your car and scrape off the frost, too.  Every time.

2. You don't need a vehicle.

Let that blow your mind for a moment.  We farm kids have all grown up driving, operating equipment from the time we can reach the pedals, and "helping" our dads steer before that.  But in the city or town, most things you need are in walking distance.  If they aren't, you can take public transit or a taxi.  Seriously, there are city people who never learn to drive.  Is your mind blown yet? 

3. Everything is concrete.

I mean everything.  It's ridiculous.  Even when there are patches of grass, you often aren't allowed to walk on them.  It's awful.  I don't understand how city people don't all have serious problems with their backs and knees from walking on the stuff all the time.

4. You actually have to exercise.

This more applies to students.  There are no cows to chase after or feed in the city.  There are no crops to go check.  There are no machines or grain bins to climb onto.  You just sit and walk between classes all day.  They have these things called gyms here, with all this fancy equipment.  There are weights to lift and bars to pull yourself up on and treadmills so you can run in place.  If you want to stay reasonably fit, you have to go to the gym and use the equipment.  Or shovel snow for all the neighbours.  It's weird.

5. Stars don't show up real well.

They call it light pollution.  You know how you can see where your neighbour's yard is at night, even if it's behind the trees, just because you can see the glow of the yard light several meters into the night sky?  Imagine thousands of yard lights all doing that at once all in a concentrated area.  The light blocks the light of stars, just like the sun does during the day.  Oh, you can usually see a couple of particularly bright stars on a clear night, but it's just not the same.

6. You can't see anything.

There are buildings upon buildings and sometimes you have to look straight up just to see the sky.  Back home (unless you live near the mountains) you can usually see the horizon.  Even in the bush, there's always something to see.  But in the city (not so much in small towns), there's just man-made stuff everywhere.  There's so little of God's creation to see that you almost don't notice it at all.  I actually didn't realize that there were trees in the city until a friend of mine (who grew up in the city) was talking one day about how he likes to drive around and look at all the trees along the streets.  Actually, if you have a friend who grew up in the city, they can point out a lot of interesting things that we can't even see until they do.  

7. Things change really fast.

You can live in an area for months while you go to school, go home for the summer, come back and barely even recognize the area.  The people of the city are always building and updating stuff.  Back home, it's big news when a neighbour knocks down a patch of bush or plows up a pasture.  In the city, change is just normal.  I don't know if that's good or bad.  Maybe it just is what it is.

8. There's almost always something to do.

We've all seen the movies where some city slicker comes to visit relatives on the farm and complains because "there's nothing to do."  We also all know that there's always something to do on the farm; but that's usually work.  In the the city, and even in town, there are endless ways to entertain oneself if you have the desire to do so.  You can usually find someone nearby to hang out with.  There's mini golf, bowling, swimming, movies, plays, concerts, and stuff I don't even know about.  What I'm trying to say is that social activities aren't restricted to church and community hall suppers (not that there's anything wrong with those - some of my favourite events are the community hall suppers).

Well, I think 8 insights is enough for now.  I realize it sounds like I'm complaining about the city/town in a lot of those.  I suppose I am.  I prefer to live in the country, but life's not all bad here.  It's just different and takes some getting used to.