This is the best decision you've made so far, but that doesn't mean it was an easy one.

Moving to a town where you don't know a single soul is the weirdest experience you'll have. You'll go to the grocery store and for the first time in eighteen years you won't run into your sixth grade math teacher or your ninth grade grade crush, you'll have to use your maps app just to get to the nearest target and you'll no longer go to you favorite fast food place and see half of your high school working there. It's all weird and you have absolutely no idea to handle it and that's OK. It's terrifying, but it's exactly what you need.

Your small high school football stadium has turned into a stadium that seats over 100,000 and you no longer have math, English, and history with your quarterback. Instead of dressing up in t-shirts and shorts to go cheer on your team, you're now dressing in your finest clothes to go sit in 90 degree weather on a Saturday afternoon/evening. You're no longer sitting in the stands with the people you've known since the first grade, but instead you're with people you've known for maybe a month or two. Let me tell you, it feels so good. You're gonna love every minute of it. Even the ones when you're sweating profusely trying fan yourself with a piece of card stock glued to a popsicle stick that says "Go (insert mascot here)". It'll create some of the best memories and you'll want to relive them 1000 times over.

You're coming from a town where going to the movies and going out to eat are about the only things to do on the weekends. But let's not mention the random walks through Walmart because yes, you were just that bored. You're going to miss it, but that's the point. You came to the new town and big school for the excitement and thrill. You did it because you no longer wanted to spend your Saturday evenings just browsing around Walmart or going to the movies. You want more. You want to explore the world.

When you get back, no one will forget what school you went to, likely because you're one of the few that left. One of the few that didn't go to the same other four schools that the rest of your graduating class went to. They'll ask you how your grades are and if you made friends. They'll ask how long you're going to be here for and how long until you come back. The trips will become shorter and shorter. With the short amount of time you have left, you'll have to manage to catch up on all the latest drama including who broke up, who got together, who's having a baby and who's getting married. You won't be in the loop anymore and it'll be weird. You'll feel like half of the people you know are getting married and you haven't changed a bit, but you have.

When you come home, you'll realize how much you miss your school because you'll be telling all of your high school friends stories of your new friends. They won't be able to keep up because they have no idea who the 20 new names you just mentioned are. Those funny stories of Saturday nights won't be as funny to your hometown friends because well, they weren't there. You'll bond more with the other people who went away to big schools because they have similar experiences.

All in all, it wasn't an easy choice to leave your small town, but it's the best one you made. Packing up your car and driving five hours away from everything and everyone you know will prove to be worth it. Truth be told, you'll always appreciate your town, but maybe it wasn't meant for you. It doesn't make you better than anyone you graduated with, it just makes you different.