Folks who grew up in the country, what was the hardest part of adjusting to city-life?

19 comments

1. Traffic

2. 24/7 noise

3. I moved from a city to the countryside and back, the thing I hate above everything is the light pollution.

   I miss the stars

4. Lack of green space, trees, and flowers.

5. I miss being able to walk out my door and disappear into the woods for a while.

   I used to just find a place where I could not see any other humans or buildings, and just be there alone. Now I have to drive somewhere away in order to do that.

6. Seeing the amount of homelessness, I was terrified of them at first honestly.

   The culture difference. Everyone knew everyone in my neck of of the woods. But here, having strangers approach me still scares me. I’m way more weary of people.
   Drugs were not accepted in my town. Here, people are openly doing drugs and no one cares.
   My backyard was a river, now, I have to drive to a river and drive even farther for a nice swimming spot.

7. Waving a bus down. Didn’t know I was meant to hail a bus and couldn’t work out how to get on one. Anyway, got there in the end.

8. There’s noise all the time, lots of sirens specifically. It’s never completely dark. I don’t get as much sunlight on my balcony because all of the other buildings block it, so I can’t grow anything. There’s also a noticeable difference in air quality.

9. Having people live so close. I’m used to not seeing my neighbors.

10. [removed]

11. Getting around, I moved to Colorado right in the city and I’ve never taken public transportation before so taking busses and trains was something hard for me to get used to I never felt safe

12. I moved to the city for college. First: So many people everywhere all the time! On the side walks or at the store, it can easily become overwhelming. Second: The smell of the city, it just smells like sewer/trash even worse when it rains. Back home worst smell you get is manure if you go by a farm. But in the city the trash is all over the streets constantly with rats and roaches.

13. the taste of tap water

    also early noises but some can be nice

14. No one says good morning/hello.

15. No privacy your neighbor is only a few feet away in the city.

16. How neighbours living in such close proximity can just completely ignore each other. I grew up on a farm, outside a small town, bit even in the centre of the town where there were some areas with terraced houses, people greeted each other with a smile when they pass each other on the street. In the city, everyone mostly seems to completely ignore those living just meters away from you.

17. Traffic, I hate driving because I feel like those who drive in the city are more reckless and are always rushing everywhere.

18. The cost of living. It’s more expensive, even in small cities. What I saved in terms of transportation costs was negligible at best. I thought the job market would be better, but it was just as bleak because even though there were more available jobs, there was even more competition. I thought since there was more to do, I would get out more but it was too expensive.

19. I still haven’t adjusted