Every place on Earth is different, but there is something about small towns that set them further apart from the big cities such as NYC. Big cities are a whirlwind of movement, with people and cars everywhere you look. Bright lights cover the streets and sprinkle the sky. In cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, there is something to do no matter what- wherever, whenever. In small towns, things are a little different. It’s quiet, and you could drive through entire neighborhoods, never seeing a single person. They seem like the happiest places on earth, but everything has its flaws.

Small towns are boring. There is no other way to put it. There’s no amusement parks, no games for professional sports nearby, and you’d be lucky to find more than one movie theater. You find yourself traveling over a half an hour just to find something fun to do. The lack of things to do can push kids to grow up in a few different ways. One way is to engage themselves heavily into school. These kids are the ones who come home to immediately do homework. They participate in a club or two and may even play an instrument as well. On Friday nights, the kids who chose school go to the big game of the night, dressed to the nines in their school colors. They crowd into the end zone like sardines, sweating even in the chilly air as they jump and scream for their team.

Another way that kids go is to put themselves into their sports. For them, there is no off-season. They practice in every free moment they have, whether it is by waking up early to squeeze in another run before school, or shooting all of their trash as if shooting a free throw. These kids work hard at their sport because they dream of leaving the small town behind and making it to the big leagues. For them, Friday night football games are just a stop on the way to the best college teams out there, or maybe even the NFL.

Unfortunately, there is another path that people in small towns tend to fall down. Without things to do after school or work, an unfortunate amount of people think that drugs or alcohol are something fun to indulge in. It may not be a shock to find empty nip bottles cluttering the curbside. With the heroin epidemic going around, it may not even be a surprise to find needles on the street. Small towns see the highest number of alcoholics or drug overdoses. To make things worse, parties in small towns always wind up out in the middle of nowhere, leading to teens drinking and then driving home. At least in the big cities, teens who party are in places with lots of people, and can easily get a cab home.

People may think that small towns are peaceful and nice, but the one I grew up in could be considered anything but that. We have shootings on holidays, shootings in the morning, a stabbing next to the local high school over a dime bag of marijuana. Just this week, a body was found floating in a lake. I bet you are picturing that like a scene straight out of Criminal Minds, I know I did. In small towns, word gets around easily. Because of this, when kids do something embarrassing they are terrified to go to school, fearing the bullying and mockery they’ll endure. Since there’s nothing else to do in town, kids spend their nights on social media fighting in the comment section of someone’s Facebook status, or in the mentions of another person’s tweet.

Even with the drugs, violence, and boredom, there are some good qualities of small towns. Small towns are typically urban, which provides backyards and space for kids to play instead of being shut inside apartments on the 36th floor of a building, or forced out onto the streets in a bad city. Small towns can be beautiful. Without the ever-present flash of LED signs, sirens, or car lights, on clear nights you are able to look up and see thousands of stars. You can hike up mountains to see picturesque waterfalls, or landscapes of the whole county. By far, the best thing about small towns is the sense of community. Policemen supply kids with basketball hoops, and spend time playing with them. Youth centers become a second home for some kids, a place they can go to have fun while parents know their kids are safe. Just over a year ago, my town endured a tragic death. Seeing how many people came together to grieve with and support each other was astonishing.

The people who grow up in small towns have two distinctly different lifestyles once they grow up. Some people get stuck where the spent so many years of their childhood, never leaving. Others get as far away as possible and never look back. Either way, you look at it, growing up in a small town is something far different than any other place to live.