When I was young, I believed that everybody had the same type of situation as I did growing up. This changed after I moved to my grandmother’s house. Before moving, when I was around eight to twelve years old, I lived in a regular suburban neighborhood in Austin. I knew about everyone who lived there and they knew everything about me. I was friends with all of the kids in the area and I had a great time there. However, at twelve, my parents and I moved out to my grandmother’s ranch in Cedar Creek. When I first moved there, I really did not know what to expect, but I was very excited to go because I had the chance to meet new people and explore new places.

When living at my grandmother's house on her ranch, I got to learn more about living somewhere that I'm not used to. I got to know all the neighbors very well, and instead of having a larger friend group like I had in a big neighborhood, I had a way smaller friend group with the local kids in my area. I would go to my friend's house, and we would play a lot of games on his Xbox and walk around and take hikes on my grandmother's land. My friends and I had a lot of fun. Also, my grandmother had many horses and cows. While most of the rideable horses were very old at this time, I would ride some of them with my parents around the ranch, which was also very fun. I really enjoyed living in this new place. What made it a new home for me was just how different living on a farm can be.

While I did have loads of fun living on the ranch, I later saw that there was generally a lot of work to do. Around thirteen, I started helping out my grandmother. I would help tend to the animals. My grandmother taught me how to generally take care of them, like feeding, grooming, et cetera.

Owning a ranch is not cheap, so my grandmother owned a tattoo business that made a good amount of money and kept us in a good place. Also my grandmother decided to try and start a real estate business and that went well.

I have learned a lot that I don't think I would have learned elsewhere. I have learned more about rural areas like Cedar Creek–the small, but growing, community I now live in–compared to cities like Austin, which is an area with a lot of people. I have learned about how to take care of animals that I never thought I would live with. I have learned how to start a business.

When I was young, I believed that everybody had the same type of situation as I did growing up. Now that I am older, I realize that some people live in different places with different life experiences. I think what taught me this was moving out of a suburban neighborhood to a ranch near a small town. I now know that many children live in such different environments that they might see all of life differently than I. I now realize that the place where I live and the place that many other people live can change how people understand the world.

Sometimes I still wonder, in fact, what it would be like to live somewhere else. Sometimes I wonder, what if I never moved in with my grandmother? What if I stayed in the neighborhood I used to live in? How different would I be living in such a different place? How much would I learn from other places, and what would I think differently if I lived somewhere else?

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