I often wonder what it would be like to grow up in a city of thousands and thousands of people. Where you walk around and have only the slightest of chances that you would see someone you actually know.

Is it luxurious to walk around with the mystery of who everyone is and what kind of life they might be living? Or do you wish you could stop and say hi to the coffee guy and the lady who owns the store your dad owned before her?

I was blessed to live in a small town of only 1700 people and when I was growing up I had dreams of big city living, but now looking back on how I grew up and experiencing more places around the world, I was one lucky girl.

Colfax, California. The town of hillbilly mountain people who spend too much time in the forest and know too much about everyone else in the town.

My youth consisted of running a family business in town, going to school with the same people for nearly a decade, filling my free time with nature's gifts, and being surrounded by a community like no big city could ever have.

I think the best part of small town living is the sense of community created. I had an upper hand with my dad owning one of the very few businesses in town allowing me to create relationships with every regular who came through. But one of my greatest treasures was having neighbors like I did. Where I could spend my summers bouncing on a trampoline in the middle of the forest and have our other neighbor's donkeys sneeze on me when we fed them fresh apples from our trees.

Some things like that you just can't have when you live in the city and I am so grateful my family decided to move when I was only 7. I can safely say that one day when I raise my own family that a small town will be my preference.

For those of you who didn't have the glory of living in a town smaller than 2000, I believe it's something you won't get anywhere else.