Growing up in a Small Town
Life Lessons from a Small Town
Growing up in a small town is an excellent way to learn strong values. It was serendipitous that I was able to grow up in a subtle farming community where I graduated high school with the same group of children that attended my kindergarten class. Everyone knows everybody in a small town which has a few benefits. It means you can have a tab at the local convenience store and pay when you receive your paycheck and on any given day, you can walk down into the post office and greet everybody you see by name. Growing up in a small town had a significant impact on my life. Giving me the opportunity to learn to be a healthy, confident person with a love for education, and a great sense of community.
The first significant impact small town living had on me was a healthy diet. Most land in the town is farmed for fruits and vegetables, so when you drive the roads you often see what looks like seas of bright red strawberries. Along with hundreds of peach trees which are lined in perfect rows. Farmers will allow you to pull off and pay for a basket that you can fill with fruit you pick yourself. I can still recall the feeling of a wooden basket being so weighed down with fruit it created red patches on my skin where I gripped the handle. You leave the fields with hair smelling so strong of strawberries you will swear you used a shampoo. In addition to picking fresh fruits, hunting your own game is popular in small towns. It is not uncommon to hear the crackle of a fire in your neighbors yard as they grill their fresh caught fish. With such an abundance of produce and meat families typically cook at home. America has an obesity epidemic, and a lot of it has to do with the convenience of fast foods. As a child growing up in a small town, we did not have fast food restaurants in our area. If you wanted something from a drive thru, it meant driving at least half an hour each way. Which I felt was annoying as a child now I see it gave me
Growing up in a small town is an excellent way to learn strong values. It was serendipitous that I was able to grow up in a subtle farming community where I graduated high school with the same group of children that attended my kindergarten class. Everyone knows everybody in a small town which has a few benefits. It means you can have a tab at the local convenience store and pay when you receive your paycheck and on any given day, you can walk down into the post office and greet everybody you see by name. Growing up in a small town had a significant impact on my life. Giving me the opportunity to learn to be a healthy, confident person with a love for education, and a great sense of community.
The first significant impact small town living had on me was a healthy diet. Most land in the town is farmed for fruits and vegetables, so when you drive the roads you often see what looks like seas of bright red strawberries. Along with hundreds of peach trees which are lined in perfect rows. Farmers will allow you to pull off and pay for a basket that you can fill with fruit you pick yourself. I can still recall the feeling of a wooden basket being so weighed down with fruit it created red patches on my skin where I gripped the handle. You leave the fields with hair smelling so strong of strawberries you will swear you used a shampoo. In addition to picking fresh fruits, hunting your own game is popular in small towns. It is not uncommon to hear the crackle of a fire in your neighbors yard as they grill their fresh caught fish. With such an abundance of produce and meat families typically cook at home. America has an obesity epidemic, and a lot of it has to do with the convenience of fast foods. As a child growing up in a small town, we did not have fast food restaurants in our area. If you wanted something from a drive thru, it meant driving at least half an hour each way. Which I felt was annoying as a child now I see it gave me