Throughout the course of my 22 year long life, I have lived in a total of 5 small towns, all at very different times in my life. What I want to talk about is the good and bad that comes with living in a small town.
The first small town I lived in was a little bitty town called Damascus, just southeast of Portland, Oregon. Where I lived was way out on the edge of town, which is pretty much where everyone in Damascus lived. The population when we moved away was about 8500 people. It was a cute little town, where the vast majority of the land was residential and there was only 1 stoplight. I remember there used to be a Safeway and an Albertson's across the street from each other, which was always good for prices. There was also two gas stations less than a block from each other and they would always be in a price war. What I learned living in small town Oregon is how to get along with kids from other faiths. I actually went to a Seventh Day Adventist private school for 4 years there, where we prayed and read from the bible every day. One time a kid in my class actually prayed that "the mormons would come to know they are wrong and realize that they are all going to hell." I actually told the kid that had prayed for that that I was a mormon that day at recess. That day I noticed that everyone in my class started treating me differently. They all looked at me like I was some poor brainwashed little child. I didn't really have many friends after that. That was the last year I attended that school.
Another small town that I lived in was little old Hurricane, Utah, "Gateway to the Parks!" We moved here when I was 11. I learned quite a lot living in small town Southern Utah. The population at the time we moved there was almost exactly the same as Damascus. One of the things I learned here is how to build a house. When we first moved there, we were living with my grandparents. Shortly after we moved there my grandparents bought the plot of land next to theirs and gave it to us on the condition that we built him a decent woodshop, which we did. We designed and built the house on that land from scratch, and we all got a chance to work on it in some way or another. I actually hid a note in the insulation just before we put up the drywall :) Another thing I learned in Hurricane is how narrow minded some people can be. I would hazard a guess that 75% of what would have been my graduating class stayed within 4 hours of Hurricane. Of that 75% probably 90% stayed within 45 minutes. Everyone there lived in a bubble, where going to St. George, a whole 15 minute drive at most, was considered a major event that had to be planned ahead of time. This was a big change for us, everything being so close together. In Oregon we were used to having to drive at least 20 minutes to a decent grocery store and about 45 minutes to an hour to the nearest mall. I have wanderlust, so living in a place where 90% of the population has never been out of the state (it was 20 minutes to Arizona) was really sad to me. These people didn't want to leave! But, Hurricane had so much charm that after having to move away, I would move back in a second. I would just make sure my children knew there was a whole world out there to explore.
The last small town I want to talk about is Rexburg, Idaho, home of Brigham Young University - Idaho. I lived there for less than a year altogether, but over that time, I grew to love small towns so much more. After living in Texas, where the number of students in my high school was about a quarter the population of Hurricane, Rexburg was a welcome change. Rexburg was the kind of college town where the population doubled when school was in session. It had 4 stoplights when I first moved there. They also had the smallest walmart I have ever seen. Everything was within walking distance. The furthest I ever had to walk was from my dorm to walmart, which is about 2 miles. One thing I learned there was what a good doctor that truly cares about his patients is like. Not only did my doctor remember me as soon as he saw me after I had been gone for almost 2 years, but my chiropractor there gave me free treatment for 3 months, 3 times a week, because my back was so messed up that he didn't care that my insurance wasn't accepted there, he just wanted to make sure I was getting help. My favorite thing about Rexburg was the temple. The temple there is on top of the highest hill for miles around so that you can see it from about 20 minutes away when it is all lit up at night. I only every got to do baptisms there twice, but the two times I went I was incredibly impressed with how well they kept things going smoothly for being so busy all the time, and it was amazing how even then the spirit was so strong. Even though I haven't lived there in a year and a half, Rexburg feels like home just as much as Denton does.
So, to sum up, living in Hurricane taught me to be careful that living in a small town doesn't make you forget that there is a whole world out there. Living in Hurricane also taught me that just because everyone around you has the same religious beliefs doesn't necessarily mean they have the same standards. Living in Damascus taught me that how to stand up for my religious beliefs when your classmates think you practice witchcraft and are going to hell. And lastly, living in Rexburg taught me how to fall in love with a place so perfect for you that you didn't think it existed.
