I’m a small town girl who loves the life of the buzzing city. I come from a flourishing town called Johns Creek, an odd, blue landscape which stands out in the red state of Georgia. Johns Creek is a diverse, suburban area where almost everyone knows one another. Fresh on the map, Johns Creek was made into an official city only 11 years ago; its younger than I am.
It’s like any other typical town with a couple of the usual shopping blocks and your local Starbucks. A town where going to your tutor takes just a 20-minute walk, and your best friend lives just two minutes away. A place where you’re most likely to run into your colleague at your local Kroger. A community where you can make plans with friends to meet at the mall without specifying which one. A small suburban area where you see cherry blossom trees in the spring and bright orange oaks in the fall, and you can run into stray deer and turtles as you drive on the streets. And when you go to sleep, the only light that’s on is the little street lamp outside your window. It’s quiet. Too quiet. With just the sound of crickets chirping or the little rustles of the bushes as a stray deer comes to munch on some fresh vegetables from your backyard garden. Sometimes, it’s so quiet, you can hear yourself think.
And that’s when I long for it.
The loud city noises. The constant honking of cars and taxis. The bright lights of buildings. The odd and peculiarly strange people you would bump into every day; people who are just trying to get to and from work but never cease to surprise you, because, in the city, everyone is different. Everyone has different beliefs and manners and hobbies.
Unlike a small town where many people are the same, because most people don't know each other, city folk don’t care. They go about their business; they don’t care what others think, they just do what they need to do. And I like that mindset.
The bright lights and constant noise is something I can sleep to. It keeps me grounded. It lets me know that I’m alive as I sleep. But more than anything, the city life is addicting and new. It’ll always be something new, because nothing is ever the same in the city. One day you’ll see someone on the streets, and the next day, they may not take that route again.
A small town can give you so much. It can give you friends and memories, but it can also give you heartbreak and loss. A city can do the same. It can give you friends and memories, but it can also serve the same feeling of deprivation and affliction.
That’s why in the end, it just depends on where you want to go and what you want to be. What you want to do and what you want to see. Some people are fine where they are, but others were made to explore places they’ve never experienced. My growing curiosity as to what life would be like on the other side/ It's what my gut told me.
It told me that I’m a small town girl who wants to explore the big city life.
There would be things I would miss. Once I made it into the city, I wouldn’t be able to see the stars. I wouldn’t be able to catch glimpses of sunsets on the horizon of a local church like I do in Johns Creek. There are a lot of things that wouldn’t be the same.
But hey — I'm a small town girl who was made for the big city life.
