There are quite a few small towns in America, especially in the South. We have all read the books and seen the movies that romanticize these southern small towns. There are a lot of really great things about living in a small town, but it's certainly not all sunshine and roses. Here is what it's really like.
1. Everyone knows everyone.
Everywhere you go there's a familiar face. You can't go to the grocery store without running into at least three people you know. It's one of the best and worst things about small town life. It's comforting to have people you know around, but sometimes you just want to go buy some candy from the drugstore with no makeup on in peace.
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2. The dating pool is small.
There's just not a whole lot of people in a small town. But there are a few people that seem worth dating. Of course, of these people worth dating, about half of them have dated at least one of your friends. The other half are related to you somewhere down the line. So basically you have to break girl code/guy code and date your friend's ex, overlook the whole "we're actually seventh cousins" thing, or stay single. Your choice.
3. There's not much traffic.
This is definitely one of the best things about small town life. We don't have to slow down for green lights, there's no such thing as "5 o'clock traffic," and it only takes about ten minutes to get to the other side of town.
4. There's not a whole lot to do.
There's a few restaurants in town to go out to eat and in the fall we have high school football games but that's about it. Unless you count the house parties, because we have plenty of those. And by house parties, I mean in the backyard around a fire drinking with about twenty friends.
5. We look out for each other.
This sounds cliche but it's true. If we see someone in a tough situation, we always do what we can to help them out. And then when we're in trouble there's always someone there to lend a helping hand in return. If you get a flat tire in a small town, someone will stop to help you.
6. Everyone knows your business.
Gossip spreads like wildfire in small towns. Everyone knows everything that you do, sometimes even before you do. Just about everyone knows who you dated, why you broke up, what you did last Friday night, and what your parents did last Friday night. It can be tough when everyone knows about your mistakes. On the bright side, your boyfriend/girlfriend probably won't get away with cheating on you.
7. We take "Southern Hospitality" seriously.
Everyone's not always nice to everyone all the time, but we're polite. We smile and say, "Hey, how are you?" to people we don't know. We wave at people when we pass them as we're driving. In bigger cities people seem more focused on what they are doing and they don't usually go out of the way to talk to other people as much as we do in small towns.
8. It can be cliquey.
Living in a small town can sometimes feel like high school never ends. There's cool kids and outsiders. It seems like there's always a few big names that run the town and if you're not with them then it's as if you're beneath them.
9. We always come together as a community.
Hands down the best thing about small town life. Everyone's so close-knit and when something terrible happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. In my little town there's been a few people diagnosed with cancer in the past couple of years. Everywhere you look, there's people starting fundraisers for them, people posting #prayfor(whoever) everywhere, bringing them and their family meals, donating money, putting them on the prayer list at church. It is truly awesome to see the community put everything aside to support each other when we need it.
10. It's peaceful.
There's not a lot of hustle and bustle. You can take a quiet walk around the block and relax out on your front porch without being disturbed. Life is usually calm and slow in a small town and that's just the way we like it.
