Signs You Grew Up in a Small Town

If you grew up in a small town, this one’s for you.

Everybody knows everybody.

Truth is, you’ve probably known most people in your town since kindergarten. Also, your parents are all friends, so there’s really no getting away with anything. Whenever you go to your local gas station or grocery store, you’re bound to see someone you know shopping there or working there. That’s just how it goes.

Everyone knows everything.

Now this can be good or bad. But eventually everyone will know who you have a crush on or that you’re getting married within a matter of days. The word just gets around.

You have to explain to everyone where you live.

Drive an hour away and when people ask “where are you from?” you have to give them a surrounding city or town that is more popular than your town in order for them to know approximately where it is.

You have options of where to shop, eat, and hang out.

This may not be the same for everyone, but my town was basically in the middle of everything so I could choose which one I wanted to go to. That way you could know the best restaurants and hang out spots in each town. It would just be a matter of deciding which one was fitting to your mood.

You’re safe.

This is a big one. It’s easy to worry about safety but in a small town?? People don’t lock their front doors or their cars. Everyone knows everyone and it would be tragic if someone found out that it was you breaking into someone else’s house, so nobody does it.

It’s always quiet.

Nothing really happens too often in a small town. The closest busy street can be miles away on the interstate. So that’s why when something big is happening, you know about it. You can hear fire trucks and police cars, as well as fireworks, across town. You can always get a good night's sleep AND keep your window open because it’s just that quiet outside at night.

You have one or two big events... each year.

Whether it’s a Halloween party, a summer festival, a parade, or a Christmas tree lighting, these events are what we live for. And EVERYONE goes. If you think the person you don’t like isn’t gonna be there then honey you’re lying to yourself because everyone goes to these things every year. It’s just a life event.

Your graduating class is less than 300 students.

This is pretty self explanatory but if you have a small town, only a hundred or so people are in each class. And you know every single person by name and you also know their backstory and their family. You just grew up with them and probably knew them your whole life.

You live near at least one farm.

Farms are just the norm around small towns. You can’t smell them all the time, but you can find one around every corner.

You know how to get everywhere.

If you lived in a small town all your childhood, you probably paid attention to the routes your parents took to get different places and memorized where everything was, so that when you got your license, you knew exactly how to get everywhere.

You know where everyone lives.

Whether they rode your bus or you used to be friends with them and go to their house, you usually figure out where someone lives soon after meeting them. I don’t know why, it’s just what happens.

You can’t wait to leave.

This isn’t the same for everyone, but living in such a small confined place can be boring after a while. So you probably are looking forward to going on vacation or moving to college or moving out in general.

You will always remember where you came from.

Even though the people are annoying sometimes and everyone knows your whole life story, you wouldn’t want it any other way because this is your hometown and where your childhood took place. No matter where life takes you, always remember the little place where it all started!