Tips for Living in the Big City #2

Small towns are not quite known for their large buildings in the way that cities are. You are quite unlikely to drive through a small, barren town and see a skyscraper (if anyone can prove me wrong, I’d love to see it). In my hometown, at least, the largest building stands at a whopping five stories tall, although even that may be a bit of an exaggeration. The sheer size of the buildings in Portland was a shock when I first moved here, and I am a little ashamed to admit that I still get a little nauseous looking down out the window when I am six or seven floors up. 

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I always loved my hometown. It was small but it was mine. I knew every backroad and shortcut, and could rarely leave the house without running into someone I knew. I figured I would never leave my hometown. Nearly everyone there was related, and many of the families had been based there for generations. I figured I’d go to the nearest college, get the quickest degree I could, and settle back down in my small hometown. 

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Unfortunately, tall heights are an unavoidable part of living somewhere the size of Portland. One of Portland's largest tourist attractions, the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) tram, proves this. For less than ten dollars, one can stand in a large clear box and see the vast city sprawl out beneath them. Both beautiful and frightening, this tram encapsulates the city and all that it includes. It also shows that, sometimes, in order to see something, one has to have distance and perspective, and ride to the hospital in an aerial tram.

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As I began to think about my future, and what I wanted it to be, I realized I couldn’t stay in my hometown. As I looked at my peers and neighbors, I realized that so many of them had been born there, grown up, and lived there their whole lives, and so had their parents, and their parents' parents, and so on. And so, it seemed, their kids would be born, grow up, and live there their whole lives. Many of my classmates went to the closest university with their friends and enemies, unable to escape the social climate of high school and bringing all the drama of high school with them to college. 

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Reed College was intimidating at first. Although it promised to be a small college, the campus sprawled out in a myriad of confusing directions, with students strolling about on the Glawn and the Quad. More intimidating than that, however, was the academic rigor of Reed College. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone describe Reed College as easy, and I don’t think anyone ever would. When I decided to come to Reed, I knew it would challenge me to rise up to the occasion and become a better student.

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In more ways than one, coming to college in Portland has made me confront my fear of heights, both the metaphorical and literal ones. I realized that, in life, as in hiking, if you’re afraid of heights, you’ll never make it to the top.