Something that I have really noticed is that many city dwellers don’t ever really leave the city, or never really venture out into the small towns out in the country. In my case, a little town just like that is what I call home. What is growing up in a small town like? Well, that’s quite simple really.
Living in a small town is driving mainly down back roads that are really bumpy or dirt roads that cover your car in dust. It’s mainly seeing nothing for miles but farmland dotted with small houses and irrigation systems. It’s seeing horses, cows, goats, and pigs on a regular basis. It means driving at least one hour to reach a mall, and twenty minutes just to get to the closest Walmart.
Being a small town girl means growing up wearing worn-out jeans and a t-shirt on a regular basis because your mom knows that you’ll most likely get dirty. It means growing up adventuring in the woods or on the playground while letting your imagination lead the way. It’s playing in the backyard with your older brother, all of his friends, and all of the neighborhood kids in a game of kickball, football, or whiffle ball. It is spending entire childhood summers at the baseball diamond while your dad coaches the team. It means spending hot days at the lake swimming, tubing, or jet skiing. It’s going to the river to fish with your dad and having to learn to bait your own hook, no matter how gross you think it is.
Living in a small town means knowing the same group of kids all throughout elementary, middle, and high school. It means playing varsity for three sports because you go to such a small school. It’s having an older brother who was the homecoming king, and the star quarterback of the football team. It means spending warm fall and summer nights driving around with the radio blaring, the windows rolled down, and making memories because there’s nothing else to do on a Friday night. It’s sitting through graduation and knowing every name that is called, and every person that walks across the stage in the high school gym. It means that everybody knows everyone, and everyone knows everything, no matter if it’s the good, the bad, or the ugly. It’s where the most common careers are farming or working in a factory. Both of which are careers of hard work requiring good work ethic. It’s where everyone understands the struggle of not having a lot of money. But most importantly it’s living with the strongest support system. It’s living in a close-knit community that comes together when you need them most.
So to those people that think that nothing good comes out of a small town except white trash and country bumpkins, or that living in a small town is nothing but torture, think again. Small towns have so much to offer, and it can give you such a simplistic perspective of the world around you. I, for one thing, am thankful that a small town is what gave me great friends, great memories, and a great place to call home.
