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What is it like moving from a rural to an urban part of California? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Martin Michelsen, on Quora:
I grew up on a farm in Potter Valley, California, and lived there until I was 18 years old. I then moved to Pasadena for college, and from there, moved to Menlo Park to work at Quora. Neither Pasadena nor Menlo Park are particularly urban, but the contrast was still fairly stark to me. These are some of my observations from the last few years:
Rural places are absolutely beautiful. Potter Valley is a town of fewer than 1000 people, spread out over the valley floor and in the surrounding hills. My family owns 13 acres of land in the valley where we have a farmhouse, garden, two barns and grazing fields for our sheep. There's plenty of wide open green land, you can't hear cars even on the street (1/4 mile from the house), and you can see the Milky Way at night with your unassisted eyes. In Pasadena and Menlo Park, I had less space to myself, I could hear traffic at all hours, and my night walks were lit by streetlamps instead of the moon.
Rural life requires resourcefulness. Going to the hardware store meant a 30-minute car ride each way, so I learned to improvise with the tools and materials I already had. We could call someone to fix a leaky pipe or broken furniture, but it was often easier and faster to do it myself. I'm still sometimes surprised by how my peers would rather call someone to do these things for them.
Cities provide lots of different stimuli, which can be overwhelming. On the farm, visiting a friend who lived one town over meant a 20-minute car ride each way, which I had to ask my parents to provide. Very little happened spontaneously; events required a lot of planning and preparation. I've become used to this mindset, and I like to know what I'll be doing before I go out. Dense cities are often too overwhelming for me, since I didn't learn how to filter my input stimuli the same way many of my city-dwelling peers did, and I experience a lot of anxiety when spending any significant amount of time in an urban area.
Rural communities are constructed in different ways. In Potter Valley, most children went to the same school, parents went to the same churches and bible studies, and worked with each other often outside of these gatherings. There were a few well-known people in the valley who sold hay bales or allowed ranchers to run cattle on their land for a small fee. People celebrated each others' personal achievements without asking or being asked. In larger communities, there's a multitude of social opportunities available, and people have more choice about what to spend their time on, so they tend to form friendships through specific interests rather than through simple availability, necessity, or location. I find that it's harder for me to make friends in Silicon Valley, partially because I don't have the same mental framework for this as most of my peers who grew up in cities.
The qualities that I like the most about Menlo Park (for example, the relative quietness and the abundance of trees) are those that are reminiscent of my childhood. In summary, rural life is slower, more peaceful and tranquil, and despite the amazing adaptability of the human race, I still experience some disconnect from the faster-paced excitement of living in a denser area.
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