Free «Small Town» Essay

Small towns I would say are the kind of places which can perfectly give you a soothing atmosphere. What is required is a personality match between the person and what small towns have to offer. This can be demonstrated with the pros and cons small towns are associated with. I would also cite certain examples from lives of different people to prove the statements concerning this issue.

Advantages of a Small Town

Well, what we can say is there are pros and cons to every issue. And so is the case with living in small town. Let us have a look at the advantages. Firstly, living in a community of a small town, one can reap the benefit of a better quality of life as compared to most of the other large cities.  Secondly, living in small town gives us the opportunity of getting closer to nature and helps us to relate to our surrounding environment in a much more sympathetic manner.

As for population density there would be little number of people and hence there would not exist the frustration of facing volumes of traffic. Small town living would also provide a lot of possibilities to carry out your favorite hobbies and pastimes like hunting or fishing along with your close ones and enjoy every moment. The crime rate levels are also pretty low in small towns as compared to the big cities. It is so because people know each other so well and can build friendly relations with others.

Since the place is so secure, it is easier to move around with the assurance of being safe. The fact that there are warm relations between the people also contributes to the fact that a tighter sense of community feeling is developed which results in any sort of help being given when required. Also, this enables to develop a strong bond to fight against any unfavorable externalities as and when they arise. Moreover, the benefits of living in a small town can improve the quality of life after the retirement. Besides all these there are other favorable circumstances, which tempt people to reside in small towns.

Living in small towns also has other advantages like a lower cost of living. People can spend their lives with less pressures of how to make a big earning in order to survive. People living in small towns also appear to be healthier than their counterparts residing in large cities and they also live longer than their compatriots.

Once my cousin’s daughter got missing from home. The entire community was very considerate and made every efforts to search for and find my niece somewhere in the outskirts of the town. This shows the readiness to help and empathy of people for each other. Support and mutual concern for the problems of others are the main positive aspects of residing in a small town.

My cousin even did not have to bother about locking up his place during nights since he felt safe given the fact that there were no criminals in the town which lowered the number of crimes. In another case, when a family of one of my friends who live in a small town in Michigan, was going through a financial turmoil the entire community gathered and came up with support through mutual donations and fund raising. Another good thing about a small town is that one never feels alone here. You have people who take their time and talk to you.

Disadvantages of a Small Town

With all sorts of advantages also comes its share of disadvantages. People living in small towns also have to be on the losing side in certain fronts. Firstly, the lack of opportunities tends to affect them throughout their life. This lack could be in terms of the job options available or prospects of growth or lack of alternatives to choose from while shaping the career or even doing any sort of business.

Due to all these sort of lack of opportunities many people move from smaller towns to the large cities and look for opportunities which interest them and are in parity with their skill set. Moreover, some people say small towns are boring. Life in these places is not as eventful as in the cities. In the large cities there are a lot of recreational activities and entertainment facilities which the small town people are deprived of - restaurants, malls, museums, theme parks, discos etc.

Also, there are more supermarkets in big cities in comparison to smaller towns. Therefore, people have fewer choices where to buy goods for their daily needs. Even luxury items availability is something to worry about. Fashion takes a beating when you are living in a small town with no access to newer merchandise, apparels, shoes, electronic gadgets etc. Lastly, there is a lack of privacy that comes along with the community culture. People know each other so well that they tend to get involved in every activity or event relating to each other’s life.

As a result, one misses the space or the privacy to keep the personal life entirely to oneself. It becomes extremely difficult to keep the community away from your life as people have a tendency to figure out everything that is going on. So to say that if one belongs to that category of people who like excitement, risk, and variety and privacy small towns are not the place for them.

A lack of infrastructure such as education and sports facilities encourage the youth to run away from small towns in search of a better and more promising career. This was the case with the town which my grandfather used to live in. There are the drawbacks of the fact that people are too much involved into each other’s life. The gossips are huge which at times becomes extremely difficult to cope with.

My sister’s friend who came from a small town recently committed suicide due to the societal pressures after her fiancé decided not to marry her. Moreover there is a lack of public transport to travel to cities in search of jobs. So at times, people have to spend additional costs for transportation.

Fetching water from far off locations, power shortage and disruptions are  common problems in towns. As a result, people lose a lot of their time in futile activities which could have been productive had they been able to reside in cities. Also, the lack of real time information due to absence of information systems and strong communication channels is a big problem.

Conclusion

Thus, we can see that small towns have something for everyone. Though your personal ambitions and personality traits should match with the environment there else it could be much of a burden. There are a lot of advantages that these small towns have to offer. On the other hand, they also simultaneously take away a lot from you. For some it is like heaven on earth while for others it becomes a place just too small for their big wishes and desires in life.