Abigail Ramirez is a freshman journalism major at MU. She is an opinion columnist from Los Angeles who writes political and social commentary for The Maneater.
During the first dorm floor meeting of the year, the residential advisors asked our floor what scared us heading into our freshman year. Some said homework, others said building a new routine, but in my head, nothing was scarier than the culture shock of living in a small town in the Midwest.
That being said, moving to Columbia was definitely a major shift. However, it is a decision that has changed my life for the better. Culture shock is terrifying and overwhelming for any person, but it has the ability to open our eyes to a different way of life.
While Los Angeles is a large city, I grew up in a very small, liberal bubble. I never imagined not attending a school with a large Hispanic and Asian population. I never imagined not having a variety of ethnic groups within reach.
Coming from sunny California, it is difficult to move to a town in the middle of Missouri. The weather was warm in summer, but sticky. The leaves changed colors, and it snowed. The supermarkets had different names. Here, there isn’t a Trader Joe’s within a three-mile radius. Most restaurants don’t have much variety. Most of all, barely anyone looks like me.
For the first time in my life, I am the token person of color in my group. Truly, this has been the hardest change. Not being able to talk about how the cold weather makes me crave sinigang and knowing that I’m some people’s first Asian friend are such odd and foreign ideas that don’t sit right in my head.
For the first couple months of school, I resented Columbia for this. I missed home. I missed my people.
Luckily, the people around me became my home, and they shared their love for the Midwest with me. They told me their stories of huge barbecues on Independence Day, blasting Zac Brown Band on the lake and sledding with their little siblings in the winter. They introduced me to corn mazes and why Iowa should be made fun of for having so much corn. They showed me the small pieces of this part of the country that a city girl would have never seen.
I always thought the Midwest was full of a bunch of farms and people with trucks. But after living here for a little under seven months, I realize it’s so much more than that. It’s the coffee shops that are always inviting and warm, and the people suffering through the heat and snow together. It’s the collective screams throughout the entirety of sports games and the days Midwesterners take for themselves to enjoy the fall weather that have made me see Columbia as another home.
As soon as I started focusing on what new things I could learn rather than the things I’d lost, the change became much more manageable. In that way, I’m thankful for culture shock. I’m thankful that it opened my eyes to a whole new world of people and way of living. While the humidity is still insufferable, the lack of Filipino food is less than desirable and the abundance of Cardinals fans is irritating, I’ll always be excited to come back to CoMo.
Edited by Lucy Valeski | lvaleksi@themaneater.com