6 truths about growing up in the country that city kids just won’t understand.

Everyone knows the saying “you can take the girl from the country but you can’t take the country from the girl.”

Well, that saying is definitely true. Because I may have lived on the coast for the last ten years, but I will never forget what it was like to grow up in the country.

And no matter how much I tried to deny it, my country roots always exposed themselves. Like that time my friends and I were discussing our best school achievements and mine was getting top in the class for parking the tractor in ag (agriculture, for you city people). I absolutely nailed parking that massive hunk of metal. #truestory.

No matter how much time passed, and how many people I met, it became apparent to me that there is, and always will be, some things that city kids just don’t understand about growing up in the country.

Things like:

1. The lack of public transport.

No, we can’t just ‘jump on the train’ to visit our friends. There is one train – yes, one. If we’re lucky. And it comes once daily at 8.45am when it’s heading out west and the next day at 3.45pm when it’s headed back to Sydney. Yes, you can catch it but your destination is normally, at the very least, over five hours away.

 Just as an FYI, this post is sponsored by NBN Co. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100 per cent authentic and written in their own words.

2. Studying agriculture as a subject at school.

Studying ag is possibly the reason why I am the bomb at reverse parking now. Other fun aspects of studying agriculture at school were keeping an egg in a padded box for a week then throwing it off the tallest building in the school, hoping it didn’t break (mine did). Or when I literally raised a chicken from the time it was born, only for the teacher to tell us that the assignment was not completed until the chicken was killed and we were offered it for dinner. Yep, I’m guessing a country education is a bit more hands on and practical than a city one…

3. Learning to drive at a young age.

I lived in ‘town’ as opposed to being on a property, but even when you lived in town it was still expected that you would learn to drive at a very young age. And you always had plenty of friends with properties to practice on. Most kids are riding quads and two-wheelers by six or seven and there was always a paddock basher (ie a rusty, old, un-registered car) available to learn on when you hit the un-official licencing age – of 10.

4. Everyone knows everyone and always helped out.

Literally. Those TV shows about small country towns are true. Every time you met someone in town you would hear “oh you must be *insert relative here*’s daughter/sister/niece/cousin.” And once they knew where you slotted into the town dynamics they were always willing to go out of their way to help you. We wouldn’t think twice about giving a friend a lift home to her property an hour out of town.

5. Pets are friends AND food.

Yes, animals again. Animals are a big part of country life. One of my friends described it best when she explained the closer an animal lived to the residence, the less likely it was they would be dinner.  That is definitely one thing city kids will never understand.

6. Horrible Internet and mobile reception.

Do you remember when the internet was new? Yeah, me too. Except I probably got it about three years later than you – and even then, it cut out regularly. I don’t think I ever finished an online chat conversation until I was 18. And while having my teenage conversations cut short was annoying, having a dodgy internet connection was a big problem while I was studying and doing assignments during the HSC. You can imagine the stress and tantrums THAT caused – and how jealous I was of all those city kids with their fancy, instant broadband.

And mobiles – boy were they were fun. To get reception I stood in the furthest eastern corner of my house balancing on my left leg with my right arm up in an aerial position at a perfect right angle. It was at this point in my teens I had wished I kept up my gymnastics training.

All jokes aside, growing up in the country was an amazing experience. Sure, there were some minor inconveniences – but I wouldn’t change a thing (except for having better internet connection, maybe).

Aussie school kids aged 5 – 12 could win the opportunity to decorate the nose cone of one of the rockets that will launch the first NBN satellite into space. Click here to find out more.

The NBN is Australia’s exciting upgraded phone and internet network.  It’s designed to give Australian’s access to a fast, reliable landline phone and internet network that will help connect Australia to the world.  The NBN aims to bridge the digital divide and enable our digital economy, opening up opportunities for all Australians to learn, grow and develop personally and professionally.  It’s going to make doing the things you want a whole lot easier, no matter where you live.