Growing up in a small New England town, I have learned to love ghost stories, toured colonial homes, and lived walking distance away from a one-room schoolhouse. My little town of Ridgefield Connecticut is a magical place. It has always had a strange charm that made me love it. If you have ever watched Gilmore Girls and want to visit a real-life Stars Hallow, come to Ridgefield Connecticut. As most coming of age high school students do, I wanted to get out of my town. It is beautiful but I needed more.
I applied to college all over the map, from Michigan to California to New York. I always knew I wanted to settle down in a town like Ridgefield, but I wanted to explore what more the world had to offer during my college years. Coming to school in western New York, I thought the culture of the people I met would be similar to my own. I know that New York is not New England, but I thought that I would still feel that magic when I came here.
My first day on campus I knew that I was wrong. I spotted two Tim Hortons, which not to lie, I didn’t know existed in the US until the first day. My next clues that Olean was different were everyone’s reactions to me never having been in a truck, never using power tools, and not knowing what husking corn was. It seemed like everyone could bond on these shared experiences that I simply did not have. My new friends grew up with parents who hunt or live on Christmas tree farms. The only experience I had with Christmas tree farms was when the Hallmark Channel was turned on in the winter, (apparently there is not always a love story involving someone trying to buy the farm, strange).
My realization that the culture of St. Bonaventure was so different from my own made me nervous that I would not find deep friendships because of my lack of shared life experiences. This was not at all the case. The people that I met taught me how to use an axe and told me of the apparent financial stability of a Christmas tree farm, (not the constant pressure of someone trying to buy the farm, thanks Halmark). I developed bonds though this cultural difference that taught me so much about how other people live in this world.
I remember looking around my first week and thinking to myself, “people live like this, and they are happy?” There are so many ways to live life and still be happy. I am so excited that I came to a college that has a different way of living life than I do, and that I could explore the joy that life brings in other shapes and sizes than a Gilmore Girl’s town.
While I do not see myself changing my plans and living in Olean any time soon, I have a better understanding of the culture of my own town. My little town of Ridgefield Connecticut is almost a perfect example of what a New England town is, and my experiences here have taught me what a New England town is not. I will never forget the experiences that I had here and the growth I have experienced. My appreciation for travel and exploration has gone up so much, as I have learned so much more about myself than I expected to my first semester in college. With Ridgefield as my home base, I cannot wait to do this again.