Arkadelphia, Arkansas. A small town with a booming (not really) population of barely 10,000. I lived in Arkansas until I was 14 years old. In Arkadelphia, there were a few gas stations, a Walmart, the schools, a bank, dollar general, and a thousand baptist churches. High School students hung out at an ice cream place called Dino’s until there was a shooting and it closed, and then it was KFC and Walmart. The closest mall was more than an hour away and only had a few stores in it, and the most interesting thing that happened on the weekends was…I guess, sports.    

  I moved to Noblesville the summer before 8th grade. I went from a girl who hunts snakes in the creek with BeeBee guns, deer hunting before the sun comes up, knowing everyone in the town (and their third cousins), and splashing a four wheeler through mud and getting dirty to living in a city with a population of 52,000, shopping on the weekends, going to concerts, and not even knowing the students in my classroom. Believe me, it was a big change.

    In Arkadelphia my family owned a Sears appliance store. I spent most of my time in that store, running around, harassing workers, and hiding in washers and dryers. Don’t worry, they weren’t plugged in or anything. We knew everyone who walked in those doors. As a kid, I’d run through our neighbor’s backyards and they didn’t care, because we all knew each other. They’d just say, ”Oh! That’s the Sears man’s daughter!” and carry on with whatever they were doing. There were three lakes nearby, (one of the three is on the list for nicest lakes in the country) and I spent many hours on the water. My family would go out on the boat all the time, and we wouldn’t come back until night came.

     Not to mention the food in Arkansas was the best. We would eat cornbread almost every night with supper (yes, dinner is supper) and the best meals consisted of fried okra, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and some type of meat. (My favorite was, and always will be, brisket.)   

     Though Arkansas had great food and a homey atmosphere, there weren’t any opportunities. If I had finished school in Arkadelphia I’d be stuck there for the rest of my life. Noblesville is the complete opposite of Arkadelphia. There’s 50,000+ residences  versus the 10,000 I’m used to, and there’s multiple colleges with multiple majors to choose from. There’s no good BBQ, or good southern food in general, and I don’t even know my neighbors names, but there are opportunities. Noblesville is a different place. Everything you need is right here; and there’s variety to the “everything you need.” In Arkadelphia, we only had Wal-Mart. Here there’s Wal-Mart, Kroger, Meijer, and Whole Foods.

        One of the two hardest things for me moving to Noblesville is how northerner’s say certain words differently than southerners, and to my surprise, the sayings weren’t even the same. For example, the saying, “Bless your heart,” isn’t said here. At all. And if it is, used for sympathy, while we use it accompanied with a shake of the head. And that semi truck you see on the interstate are 18-wheelers to us.

     While the whole speech situation was rough, the community adjustment was worse. To be completely honest, I still don’t know most people in my classes, and I don’t think I ever really will. In Arkadelphia new students were talked about instantly. Everyone wanted to be their friend and pull them into their clique. When I moved to Noblesville, I was expecting something similar, but I found out that there are so many students in Noblesville that no one would even notice I was new. There are students at NHS whom I’ll never pass in the hallways, and that’s crazy.

     Every state is different. Moving from Indiana to Illinois would be just as freaky as moving from a small town to a big city. In the long run, it’s just another mark you get to put up on your map and another experience to put in your scrapbook. I’m very happy I’ve gotten to experience both small towns versus big cities and the south versus the north. It’s shaped me into who I am today.