Photo by @marilynyerks of our cat saying hello to the CT wildlife
Moving from rural Connecticut to Florence, Kentucky is quite a culture shock. I moved to Florence to live with my boyfriend after living in Connecticut for fifteen years with my parents. Before that, we lived in New York during my early childhood.
In my "part 1" article, I discussed the differences in driving, fast food availability, and wildlife sightings in Florence, Kentucky vs. rural Connecticut. In this one, I'll be discussing differences in ease of access, the sky (yep!), and the social groups.
Ease of access
Since moving out here, I'm surprised by how inconvenient everything is. Although there are more choices when it comes to dentists, doctors, restaurants, and things to do, everything is incredibly spread out. Even if I were a better highway driver, I'd be zipping around trying to get all my various errands done in double or triple the time I'd need in our small town in Connecticut.
The only real advantage I've found out here is that there is a closer dentist than mine in CT, whose office is an hour from my parents' house. Otherwise, everything is far more accessible in my old rural town, accounting for both distance and traffic. Down the street from the house is my primary doctor and specialist, the grocery store is five minutes away and across from the gas station, and my eye doctor is a ten-minute drive. A very large hospital is right next to my doctor's office should the need arise. Everything is so much more convenient.
Yes, you sacrifice choice for convenience, but when the convenient choices are really great, I don't see a problem with that.
The sky in the evening and at night
Photo by author
I miss the epic countryside sunsets. I've seen only a handful of decent sunsets since moving out here, but every sunset at home was guaranteed to be at least decent, if not spectacular. There's not much in terms of sunsets here unless you go to a higher elevation or get out of the city.
It's strange how it never seems to get dark here at night. The light pollution off the highway makes it bright all night, especially when they're doing construction work. Florence highways and exits always seem to be a work in progress. Being able to see outside perfectly at 3 AM is a little jarring and hurts the sleep schedule.
The most obvious difference when moving from a rural area to a city
People! Although I miss my family quite a bit, it is nice to find new people to befriend. Nearly every person my age in my old town was from my middle school and I didn't want to go down memory lane when trying to find "new" friends.
Here I do not recognize anyone, save some friends I met when visiting the area and from meeting my boyfriend's co-workers. A clean slate is an underrated privilege. You can be the person you are now without worrying about people judging you in comparison to who you used to be years ago.
During a pandemic, it certainly is difficult to make new friends, but I'm lucky enough to have been introduced to some great people through my boyfriend earlier on. I'm looking forward to frequenting bars and coffee shops once the pandemic ends to find some newer friends as well.
I'm not sure if I would recommend moving to Florence. It seems to be a never-ending construction project. If you have a morning commute, you may run into some difficulties. However, it has very affordable apartment options and is only a highway away from any activity you could possibly want to test out. It's growing on me.
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