As a city girl, I never pictured myself as a small college town lover. Growing up in a city of over 1.5 million people, I never considered going to a university 1700 miles away in town surrounded by corn fields. However, traveling back and forth between the Valley of the Sun, (Phoenix and West LALA) I’ve come to the realization that I might not be as much of a city girl anymore.
Living in the city my whole life has left me nothing to do when I go back home. Before winter break started, I was ecstatic at the thought of being able to go home and see my family and friends. I couldn’t wait to be back in 70 and 60-degree weather when West LALA was dealing with colder temperatures. Don’t get me wrong, going home was amazing. It was so much fun being able to hang out with my friends and eat good food, but when asked if there was anything I wanted to do, nothing within the city came to mind. Everything I remotely thought about doing was outside the comforts of the city. I wanted to go on walks and explore nature. I wanted to be outdoors and I really wanted to be anywhere that wasn’t completely congested with people.
For the eighteen years I lived in the city, it never occurred to me how vast and how populated it is, until I went back for winter break. A major difference between Indiana and the Valley of the Sun, is that I’m in extremely close proximity to my neighbors. We’re so close that we need fences and walls to distinguish between each other’s land, unlike the houses I’ve seen in Indiana where there are no fences or walls. In my pre-Purdue years, the amount of people in the city never really bothered me.It also didn’t help that so many people came to visit the city over the holidays. All those people made finding a parking spot at some of my favorite places almost impossible. I spent over half an hour just trying to find a spot. Even driving on the road with so many people began to freak me out. I was anxious driving routes that I used to drive multiple times less than a year ago. While sitting in my car in traffic, I started to miss small towns.
Although there are numerous parks and hiking trails in Phoenix, Indiana offered cornfields and Purdue. It sounds insane, but I missed being able to look out and see nothing. For the most part, when I looked out my window in Phoenix, I would see building after building. A never-ending sea of red tiled roofs and dry brown land. Although I do miss seeing a variety of cacti every day and the amazing mountains with incredible hiking trails that give some of the best views, I’ve grown to love seeing the colors change in the fall. The seasons are slightly different in Phoenix; we have sunny and warm, hot, heat advisory warning, and fry an egg on the side walk weather. Needless to say, it is extremely different from the regular fall, winter, spring, summer seasons that Indiana provides.
Unfortunately, Christmas and winter break never truly felt like it was the wintery season. Christmas just wasn’t the same after experiencing the Indiana snowfall and cold temperatures. Even though the city of Phoenix, Arizona will always be my hometown, I’ve begun to fall in love with the smaller populated towns of Indiana with its quaint cuteness and amazing seasons.