For those of you who haven’t seen Gilmore Girls, which is probably the majority of the male population, there’s a scene where Jess, a 17-year-old New Yorker, moves to the small Connecticut town of Stars Hollow. The first time he looks out at the tiny, tiny town “This Is Hell” by Elvis Costello plays in the background as he takes in all the ridiculousness that a small town has to offer.

That was essentially my constant state of mind when I moved to Kansas. When I was told a month prior to the end of my sophomore year I would once again have to uproot, I was hysterical. After I came down from my state of hysteria, I was just plain angry. Why in the world would my parents decide to move me from the metropolitan haven that is the suburban Washington, D.C. area to Kansas? I expected the total absence of culture and intellectual stimulation.

Looking back I realized that it didn’t matter where I was moving, I was going to hate it initially. No sane 16 year old looks forward to starting from scratch during such a turbulent time in one’s adolescence.

My mindset started to change after starting school. I had assumed everyone would be set in their ways, and I would never be able to build any friendships, because people already had enough friends. Thankfully, that was an incorrect assumption on my part, and I’ve made some amazing friends.

My other primary concern was the quality of education I would receive here, just based off Kansan stereotypes. Lucky for me, and all my classmates, Mill Valley High School has some incredible teachers that I believe have offered me a better and more fulfilling educational experience than I would have received in top-college-acceptance-focused Fairfax, Va.

My life is completely different than it would have been had I stayed in Virginia, but I’m confident in my belief that it was a change for the better.