City or town

Little kids usually never think about living somewhere else, considering a realistic place: for example moving from a city to a town or vice versa. They just accept where they live and don’t question themselves how different their life could be in another context.

But the fact is that where you grow up as a child will affect all you life, since growing up in a particular context affects your ideas and believes. This study shows that even the environment can affect your behaviour: people tend to socialize more at the ocean and to be less talkative in the mountains.

Another study shows that where we live can affect our levels of life satisfaction in ways that are somewhat predictable based on aspects of our personality and there are strong indications that the mix of individual variables with the physical variables of our surroundings can influence how we feel, what we do, and what we think about our lives.

In fact it’s not a coincidence Winston Churchill famously proclaimed that “we shape our buildings, and afterwards, our buildings shape us.”

For example is more likely that a child raised in a big city will undertake an ambitious career, this because they have more opportunities of cultural activities and they are able to see almost all the jobs. Instead children raised up in small towns could have a better safer and healthier childhood but they will struggle when they will have to leave their hometown after high school and be able to adapt themselves in a different place.
City helps you to be more flexible and open minded.

There are a lot reasons to live or not in a city, let’s analyze this deeper.

First of all cities are more expensive to live in, especially big cities as San Francisco or Los Angeles. On the other hand those cities are where it’s more likely to find a job, or a better job.
A car won’t be needed anymore since cities are well served with public transportation, if not you still won’t have a car because the traffic and the cost. Probably the best option will be a scooter or a bicycle, that are way cheaper than a car. But there is also to say that those two means of transport are way more dangerous than a car or public transportation.
Everything is handy, in fact is more likely to find rare things in a city, or you don’t need to drive hours to find what you need.
In a city you will never get bored, since there is always something to do: from museums to cinemas, theatres, concerts or shopping.
The crime is a huge deal in cities, if you live in a city you have to consider that crime is real, houses and shops get robbed and people get killed. You have to pay attention to your personal effects while you walk in crowded places to not get robbed.
The concept of space is completely different: people from cities live in apartments, that are way smaller than houses in the country and they won’t have a garden or land.

Now it’s the country’s turn:
The first thing everyone think about living in country is fresh and not polluted air and how ideal are the conditions to raise a child.
Small towns in the country are always considered safer, but is that really true? This article denies the stereotype: it’s true that homicide rates are higher in cities, but the risk of accidental injuries is 40 percent higher in rural areas.
The cost of living is typically lower, so most of the people can afford a bigger house with land instead of a small city apartment.
But a huge problem is the gap of activities. For this reason and boredness teenage pregnancy are more located in small towns. Several major cities are succeeding in lowering teenage birth rates. A study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy showed that the teen birth rate is higher in rural counties than in other areas of the country.

I had the opportunity to live in both realities and now I know where is my place. During the last couple of years I was thinking to move to the countryside since my horses’ passion: a house with some land would be the ideal situation to have a horse. It would be also cheaper since I wouldn’t have to pay for the stables. It would be also less stressful given that the atmosphere and people attitude in towns are more relaxing and friendly, instead in cities people are more stressed and always in a rush. When I started living in the country at first I really liked it, I could really feel the nature: I had never seen dears before and after I moved I see them every day in my house’s property;. It’s like living in a big park. I started changing my mind when I found out that a big and cheaper grocery store was forty minutes away from town. Another big issue that convinced me to move back to the city is the job availability: it’s really hard to find a nice job that offers the opportunity to make a career. In cities everything is handy and easy to reach, instead when you live in a town you have to drive for almost everything.
I also have to say that living in a city could be really hard for some people, especially who moves from the country to a metropolis. Each option has its own pros and cons, it’s up to you to understand if you would like better living in a city or a town.