I had a bit of a love/ hate relationship with the small town in Idaho that I grew up in. It definitely had its ups and its downs for me. However, now that I'm going to school roughly 2,000 miles away from it, I find myself missing it fairly often; I guess you could say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Anyways, regardless of how you feel about your hometown, there are definitely a shared set of characteristics that all small town locals can relate to.
1. You cannot go anywhere in town without running into someone you know.
As a child, going to the grocery store with your mom would take a painfully long time, because she seemed to stop and talk with nearly every other person she saw. As you grew up, you found that you would see a classmate, teacher, or family friend everywhere you went; it was unavoidable. Sometimes you would have hide to avoid awkward interactions with them.
2. Seeing wild animals in your backyard was a common occurrence.
City people would totally freak if they found a fox/ moose/ deer in their lawn, but for you it was a pretty frequent thing. Not to mention how cautious of them you would have to be once you started driving. In fact, on my written driver's test there was a question about the consequences of hitting a cow on the highway; it was just a part of life.
3. Back-to-School shopping required traveling.
You could never just spread it out over a few days of shopping in various places in town. You had to make a day out of it, drive an hour or more to the nearest city, and hope you got everything at the end of the day, seeing as this was your only chance.
4. You knew every person's name in your high school.
You probably knew most of them personally as well, and there's a good chance you also knew their families.
5. It was difficult to avoid dating your friends' exes.
Because of the whole "everyone knows everyone" thing, there was a good chance your crush had once been involved with one of your best friends. It either caused a lot of drama, or you just accepted it.
6. Rumors spread like wildfire.
Your classmates would know things about you before you even knew for yourself. It got to the point that parents were finding out about the gossip and spreading it through the adult community as well. This was one of the main reasons you complained about your town a lot.
7. You rarely had to worry about crime.
Sure, there were a few scary incidents. But for the most part, you could walk alone at night without arming yourself with pepper spray, you could leave your car unlocked while you went grocery shopping, and you weren't to worried about being home alone at night. All in all, you felt pretty safe.
8. You have been to every local restaurant.
In fact, you probably know the owners. Your favorites know you by name, and they already know your order. When an out-of-towner asks you for a recommendation, you're practically the Yellow Pages.
9. Visiters would always tell you how lucky you were to live there, and you never knew what they were talking about.
Commence the scoffing and eye-rolling. You could never understand what they saw in this place, and you always figured they only thought it was so great because they didn't have to live there.
10. You couldn't wait to get out... until you actually left.
You always swore you would get out of that town if it killed you. You couldn't imagine living there voluntarily, so you graduated, packed up, and left. But then suddenly, you got homesick. Being away from where you grew up finally made you realize how great you had it. Maybe small town life isn't as bad as every angsty teenager thinks.
Whether you plan on returning to your town, living in another small town elsewhere, or converting to city life, show some love for your home. You grew up there, and no matter how much you hated it at the time, it's where your roots are. So try to think about what you liked about living with the cows and the same group of people you knew since you were in diapers... it can't have been all bad, right?
