I was leaving the post office while running some errands the other day when I looked around at our small downtown and felt grateful to live in such a charming little city. Sure, we don’t always agree with the politics, but it’s been the only home we’ve ever known, and we’ve found ways to make it our own. Then that got me thinking about how I didn’t always have warm, happy feelings at the thought of living here, and why do I feel that way now and do other people feel that way about their small town?
That was a lot of thought in a very short amount of time, but I’m curious: do you like living in a small town? I used to hate it when I was growing up. Everyone knows everyone, there’s never anything to do, and life is so much slower here. Now, though, those are ironically some of the things I love most about it.
It is a lot slower here, we have a low crime rate, and everyone knows everyone, which actually does come in handy sometimes, like when you forget your I.D. or wallet at home and the store lets you get away with it because they know you’re good for it. You know all of your mom’s friends and see them at various places around town, you run into old high school friends at the grocery store and give them a friendly nod and smile when you pass, and all the shops and restaurants are only 5 minutes (at most) away.
Speaking of, though we live in a small city, it is growing! It seems like every day a sign for a new restaurant or store pops up that we get excited about. It’s neat to see how the city has changed over the last few decades, growing more and more every year. It’s also fun to compare how much we have changed, too: things we didn’t love about living here when we were younger are the things we enjoy about it now that we’re older and raising a family (like the slower pace of life).
One difficult thing has been there isn’t a big LGBTQIA+ community here, and our town isn’t necessarily known for being an open-minded place. People ask us all the time why we don’t pack up and move to a more liberal, progressive city to raise a family. We always say that if everyone just left as soon as they could, change would never happen, and that small, close-minded town you’re from would always remain that way. And I’m not naive or self-righteous; I’m not saying we alone will change the way people in any certain place think, but by staying and living our life, we’re showing those who might not be as accepting that it’s okay to be different. We’re exposing them to something they may not come in contact with every day, and maybe, little by little, they will grow to become more open-minded and accepting of those who are different than them.
We live only a few hours away from much bigger areas (Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville), so we get that small-town feel while still being close to the convenience and fun of those other, more lively cities. There’s a certain charming, whimsical vibe of living in a small town that you don’t get in other places. It’s a feeling of comfort, familiarity, and ease. And it’s a feeling we’ve come to love.
What about you? Do you like living in a small town, too? Or can you not wait to leave as soon as you can? x