Starting off small

What determines a person’s choice in applying to college is usually a mixture of factors. Usually it’s the atmosphere, whether a school excels in whatever subject the student wants to major in and where family and/or friends are attending. Thinking about all of the different options, I decided that atmosphere and the presence of friends wasn’t necessary. I’d create my own atmosphere and friends. So I applied and was accepted into Longwood University. At that time I wanted to teach, so it was primarily the university’s focus on education that convinced me that this school would be perfect for me.

I was born and raised in downtown Richmond and loved every second of it. From midnight movies when they were still only $3 every Saturday night to the little shops (however overpriced at times) in Carytown, to the three malls and various diners open until the wee hours of the morning, to the random places to satisfy Thai food urges – Richmond has everything. The diversity of Richmond thrilled me, even if that same cultural experience sometimes meant that I should be extraordinarily aware walking down the streets at night.

I had never lived in a small town, and I had no idea what it would be like. The only thing that I had imagined about Farmville was that it was a small town that somehow still had diversity. Farmville is a quaint, cute town, where nearly everyone speaks in a slow southern drawl, and a large majority of the students come from even smaller towns such as Ashland. The university in itself is quite beautiful – green lawns and brick architecture, enclosed by Brock Commons. I lived in Wheeler, an all-girls dorm, moderately large compared to most of my friends’ dorms that I’d seen.

However, cute towns can only amuse me but so much. There are thousands of people at Longwood, but it’s common to start recognizing people by the third week. The campus is enclosed, which gives it more of a college-like feel, but served only to make me claustrophobic. When I resorted to the streets of Farmville to find amusement, I could only find a few restaurants and to my knowledge only one ethnic restaurant (a Chinese buffet). As a Thai food lover, this didn’t work out too well.

Being somewhat involved in politics, and following the news at the least, I was very surprised to discover that Longwood leans in a conservative direction. I remember rather naively telling my roommate, after finding out that she voted for Bush, “Wow, people still like him?” Actually, yes, a lot of people still like him, and the majority of the university voted for him. My naivet