People Who Moved From A Major US City To A Small Midwestern Town Are Opening Up About What Gave Them Culture Shock

Moving from a large US city to a tiny municipality successful the Midwest volition apt present you to galore caller taste norms.

I asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to archer maine astir their civilization daze aft relocating to a quiescent Midwestern municipality from a larger metropolis successful the US. Here are immoderate comments I got successful response.

1. "The mayo! In South Florida and New York, it’s a condiment you devour sometimes. ... In Ohio, it comes with everything. Huge cups connected the broadside of your plate. Whole bottles connected tables. It’s successful the salad. It’s connected each the sandwiches."

2. "I'm surviving successful the Midwest temporarily, but it is antithetic from New York City successful a large way. Mainly, it is precise quiescent here, and astir radical I've met person not lived anyplace else. The biggest daze for maine is that it's not precise diverse; it's mostly achromatic and Christian, and I'm neither. Also, the locals recognize much astir the outdoors, farming, and hunting than I do. The radical are truly affable IMO. It is simply a precise blimpish area, but I haven't tally into anyone excessively hateful similar I did successful the South."

3. "All the antithetic uses of jello. Jello with pineapple and pick cheese, jello with strawberries and Cool Whip, etc."

4. "Biggest daze for maine was the food. I thought I knew bully American comfortableness food, but theirs was to different level. It was besides absorbing to spot however they had their ain small connection and words for things that I thought were called another."

"For example, erstwhile you bring implicit a casserole, they telephone it a blistery dish. Or car tags are called tabs. Or erstwhile they accidental 'oofdah' — archetypal clip I heard idiosyncratic accidental that I thought they were having a changeable lol. It was an acquisition surviving successful the Midwest, but ultimately, I felt similar I didn’t acceptable into their achromatic suburbia due to the fact that I stood retired arsenic 1 of the fewer minorities. I worked for a schoolhouse with adjacent to 100 employees, and I was 1 of 4 minorities. Beautiful weather, but not for me."

—americalz

5. "I moved from the eastbound seashore to Indiana. On the eastbound coast, sarcasm is portion of the language. Working retail, I utilized my sarcasm arsenic a mode to beryllium humorous, but it was interpreted arsenic being rude successful the Midwest, truthful I had to set my strategy."

—carrieb446108921

6. "I lived successful NYC and moved to a suburb of Minneapolis. As an organizer and activist, it was decidedly challenging to person to beryllium acold much guarded astir my politics. If we drove 10 minutes east, we'd beryllium successful a precise progressive portion of Minneapolis, but 10 minutes westbound were 'Trump won' signs... yes, successful 2023."

"You besides person to enactment a batch harder to physique assemblage astir you. A batch of radical determination had ne'er lived further distant than Chicago and had their acceptable person groups. You person to truly enactment yourself retired determination due to the fact that fewer radical volition invitation you into their groups. On the flip side, erstwhile you bash find your community, similar I did, it's the best. People attraction astir adjacent friends present the aforesaid mode astir radical reserve for household members."

—AsMK192123

7. "I grew up conscionable extracurricular of NYC and went to the Midwest for college. The biggest 1 for maine was the mode they chopped pizza. Pizza was chopped successful a grid ('party-style') by default unless you were ordering from a large pizza concatenation oregon it was heavy dish."

8. "I moved from LA to a midsized Southern town. Later successful life, I moved to agrarian Midwest and settled successful large metro Midwest. Summers are perfectly the champion successful the Midwest, particularly connected the Great Lakes. Summer festivals, produce, weather, h2o activities, and other agelong days successful the prima can’t beryllium beat."

9. "I moved from Seattle to Lincoln, Nebraska, and I deliberation this qualifies. Biggest civilization daze is however affable everybody is, 2nd is however inexpensive houses are. I profoundly miss good/varied restaurants and entree to the ocean. Beyond that, I wouldn’t determination back."

10. "When I moved to a Midwestern suburb, I noticed that inclement upwind is normal. People conscionable woody with utmost upwind without batting an eye."

11. "I moved from Seattle to a midsized municipality successful Missouri. I was amazed astatine the fig of megachurches and however galore radical talked astir their religion truthful overmuch and truthful openly."

12. "I moved from the LA country to a small, agrarian municipality successful Wisconsin (10k population, and that's mostly due to the fact that of the authorities assemblage there). The biggest daze for maine was going from being successful the 'majority' (Hispanic/Latinx) successful LA to being the lone Latina successful my full mediate school. Up to that constituent successful my life, I don't retrieve ever genuinely experiencing racism, but that municipality changed that quickly. Don't get maine wrong, Wisconsin is beautiful, and I emotion it, but increasing up successful that municipality was rough."

13. "I’m from New York (downstate), and the biggest happening for maine was feeling similar determination was nary consciousness of urgency. Whether that was walking, driving, talking, etc., I perpetually recovered myself asking, 'Am I the lone 1 with determination to be?!' Sometimes, I inactive do."

14. "How galore radical cannot recognize immoderate 'foreign' accent. Not adjacent successful a xenophobic oregon racist mode (although those types exist, too) — for many, their brains conscionable cannot recognize the faintest of accents."

—melbel811

15. "I've ping-ponged. I grew up successful the Midwest, moved to the eastbound coast, moved back, etc. People are friendlier astatine look worth but little open-minded, and much apt to cull you if you don't acceptable into small-town values. Big metropolis people whitethorn travel disconnected arsenic rude astatine archetypal but whitethorn beryllium much accepting of the types Midwesterners are presently voting against. This is wherefore I near and americium leaving again, and this has been my experience. But the chili is good."

—dmma0726

16. "Everyone has kids. If you don’t person children, you’re successful the number astatine best, and the lone 1 astatine worst. All beingness revolves astir children's activities."

17. "When I saw the deductions connected my archetypal paycheck, I called payroll due to the fact that I assumed the authorities taking little than $10 had to beryllium an error."

18. "I moved from conscionable northbound of Houston, Texas, to a tiny colony successful East Central Illinois, and the biggest alteration has been traffic. When I archetypal moved to Texas successful 2008, my commute was 20 minutes each way, but the country was overdeveloped truthful rapidly that wrong 3 years, it was 40 minutes, and by the clip we near successful 2020, it could beryllium implicit an hour. The full country was built up astatine apical velocity without immoderate nationalist proscription and without adjacent expanding existing roadways to accommodate the increasing population. Now, my commute to enactment successful a neighboring metropolis is 15 minutes each mode and ne'er varies."

Note: Responses person been edited for magnitude and/or clarity.

If you've moved from a large US metropolis to a tiny municipality successful the Midwest, fto america cognize what civilization daze you encountered successful the comments below.