I hear it all the time. I say it all the time. "I hate this town! I can't wait to get out of here!"
However, when I truly sit and think about it, there is a lot of things that I genuinely love about living in a small town. Then, when I sit and truly think about it even more, I realize that these are the same reasons that I hate living in a small town. It's quite contraindicating, I know, but once you read, you may be able to understand exactly where I'm coming from, especially if you're a small town inhabitant like myself.
1. Being up to date on what is happening in everyone's life ... because all people do is talk.
It's great hearing about all the exciting events that someone is undergoing in their life. You hear that Jennifer is getting married, Twila is having a baby and the Johnson's just bought a new house. At the same time, knowing everything about everyone isn't always a great thing. It's almost as if you have absolutely no privacy nor anyone to trust because everyone is always telling your life events to someone else.
2. Being five minutes away from the store ... and seeing everyone on the entire planet there.
Living in a small town means that whenever you go somewhere in town, it usually doesn't take over 15 minutes. You don't have to sit in long lines of traffic and listen to horns honking, you simply sit through the red lights on main street and wave to all the people you see. When you finish your short trip and make it to the store, everyone you know is there shopping as well. What you were hoping to be a five-minute grocery trip turns into an hour one, due to the whole town stopping you and carrying on a conversation. At this point, your ice cream is melted, and it's too late to go home and even watch a movie. Maybe next time ... but probably not — you live in a small town.
3. Having everyone know your name ... and them either liking you or hating you for it.
Living in a small town means that everyone knows everyone. Once you tell someone your last name, they usually know exactly what family you came from. They know your parents, your aunts and uncles and even your fourth cousin. Once they know your entire family history, they'll usually start telling you stories about your older family members. Then, either the negative or positive attitude they had towards you family ultimately becomes their attitude towards you ... even though you had no control over what happened between Grandpa Jim and his old neighbor, Bob, when they were 10 years old.
4. It's a beautiful scenic view ... but there's nothing to do.
Small towns are beautiful. At night, you can see all of the stars since there isn't a lot of pollution compared to that of cities. There are a lot of hills to climb, lots of flowers to smell and a lot of rivers to go fishing in. In reality, those things aren't fun to do every day. Over time, you get bored of going to the same parks, swimming at the same rope swing and even looking at the same trees. It also doesn't help when local organizations tear down some of the only places that children enjoy being at, leaving everyone with less things to do.
5. It's safe ... but it isn't.
Living in a small town is no where like living in a city. You usually don't have to lock the doors or even your car. It's not scary walking somewhere alone, and everyone is always looking out for each other. Nonetheless, at the same time, addictive drugs in a small town is 10 times worse than drugs in a large town. They spread easier and much faster here, leading more people to do heroin and bath salts. Then, as a result of that, there are so many closed mind people in a small town, that they only view drug addicts as addicts, not as a real person, which leads to an entire problem in itself.
Although living in a small town has it's downfalls, a lot of people love living in them, including myself. I repeatedly say that I am going to run away after college and move to the big city, but honestly, I love where I come from, and all of the joy and pains that it comes with.
