Hello, everyone! My name is Holly, and I'm writing to you from my home in Mexico City! If you had asked me 10 years ago where I thought I would be living at this point in my life, it would have been a long time before I guessed Mexico City. I didn't speak any Spanish at that time, and I thought I hated big cities. Well, fast forward a decade, and I live in the largest metropolitan city in the Western hemisphere, where I work and take classes entirely in Spanish. How in the world did a girl from a farm in Iowa end up living such a different life? Let's take a look.
I started life in a town less than two hours from Fort Calhoun: Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000. Like most people in Clarinda, my family's life was inextricably linked to the farm. If our crops were good, we were good. There were no malls or movie theaters, just the stars and the company of good friends at a bonfire. I loved life in southwest Iowa, but I have to admit, it didn't introduce me to many people of different backgrounds. I knew I wanted to go to college somewhere where I could meet people who grew up experiencing a totally different way of life than I had. I wanted to see more of the world.
