rural life

in the past six months a lot of my friends have written blogs on why they like the city. well today i would like to write on why i prefer small town living. it might go back to the fact that i grew up in a small town. however back then i craved to live in the city. i would go to visit boston and would long to live there. i liked the idea of having everything you need right around the corner including fenway park. i liked the sense of having choices. what do you want to eat? what would you like to do this afternoon?

everything in the small town seemed mundane and boring while the city seemed full of adventure and things to explore. when i looked at college i considered boston but settled on midwest college in a town of approximately 30,000. while i was there, it seemed there were many trips to indianapolis because there were things to do. we could watch the pacers, walk down by the canal, and just have fun goofing off.

when i graduated i went to greenville, sc. a city of about 50,000 but with the surrounding communities was more 300,000. i enjoyed the city life and while it wasnt boston, chicago or los angeles had a lot of opportunities. and of course atlanta and charlotte were between 1.5 and 2.5 hrs drive. this allowed us to explore and have adventures that were not capaple as a 16 year old with a license growing up in a small town in northern maine.

i did eventually move away from greenville after living there 2 yrs. we moved to a small town in central new york. it was small but i new syracuse was only a 1/2 hr away. so when i longed for some city i could easily reach it. syracuse is listed at about 150,000, and i knewwould offer some fun.

i have now lived in pulaski for 9 months and the few times i have even driven to the city have been hospital visits or seeing syracuse university sports, and a couple concerts. i can probably count on boths hands the times i have been in the city. i really do not even desire to go in. i have found many adventures here in the rural life. 3 miles from where i sit typing this blog is lake ontario where i have been countless times to read, hike, sit on the beach and revel at the beauty in front of me. only an 1.5 north is thousand islands where there are i guess a thousand islands. i havent counted them but have been on at least two of them.

if i drive northeast i can be in the adirondacks in 1.5 hrs and be in lake placid in 3. just yesterday i had to meet up with some youth pastors and drove by one of the finger lakes.

today was just an explanation of my surroundings. later i will talk about what i enjoy other then sites about small town living and part 3 will address what i like about small town ministry.