20 Things You Will Only Get If You Grew Up In A Small Town

Bright lights, big city; that’s what we all want when we move out from home. Becoming independent for the first time is all about having fun, and there’s no better place to do that than in the city. Coming from a small town is a fate unlike anything else and even though your friends in the city claim that they understand your childhood, you know that they have no clue. Escaping your tiny hometown is the biggest victory of your life, so embrace it. You’ll never have to do anything of these things again.

Drinking Cheap Beer In The Park

Evenings were for one thing and for one thing only and even if you didn’t want to drink beer, you did a pretty good job of pretending. The only way to socialize if you were under age was to hang out in the park and if you looked creepy, you didn’t care.

Recognizing Strangers In Your Town

Your town was so small that you knew practically everyone by sight. Even if you hadn’t got up the nerve to make conversation with new people, you gave them your own names and personalities, and talked openly about them with your friends.

Irrationally Hating A Nearby School

There were only two main schools in your town and whichever one you didn’t go to was irrationally hated. You have no idea where the weird rivalry came from but if you were caught so much as chatting to someone from the other school, it was basically social suicide.

Freaking Out Over New Shops In Town

Most of the shops had been in your town ever since you could remember, so on the rare occasion that a new shop opened, you had a full on meltdown. You spoke to strangers about it on the streets for weeks and even wrote an essay about curbing your enthusiasm.

Having Mutual Friends With Everyone In Town

On the rare occasion that you didn’t know someone in your town, there was a 100% probability that you both had friends in common. Discovering a stranger was like discovering treasure and you would spend hours running through the people you both knew, and what you thought about them.

Dating All Of The Same People As You Friends

With a dating pool the size of a puddle, the chances for you and your friends to go out with the same people was basically an inevitability. Dating rules were completely different in your town and the deal was, if you liked someone, you should just go for it.

Driving 100 Miles To Go Shopping

Going clothes shopping was a genuine adventure for you and if you needed to stock up on anything, it meant a trip to the nearest major city. You saw no problem with driving 100 miles just to pick up some T shirts; that’s what cars were for after all.

Fiercely Defending Your Local Pub

One thing your town had plenty of were pubs and bars and everyone had their specific favorite, normally based on its proximity to their house. If someone you knew didn’t have the same favorite watering hole, you got really defensive and over the years, you even lost a few friends because of it.

Trying And Failing To Tell Foreigners Where You Were From

Describing exactly where you lived to people who weren’t from the immediate area was basically pointless and after a few attempts, you just started saying that you were from the nearest capital city. Hey, they were never going to check up on you.

Gossiping About People You Vaguely Knew

You passed your days gossiping about anyone and everyone and even if you didn’t know them, it didn’t matter. Small towns were made to be gossiped in; you were just holding up tradition.

Hanging Out In Big Shops And Drooling Over The New Stuff

Most of the shops in your town were tiny, local stores, so when you actually ventured into a major brand, you could barely control yourself. As soon as your town got a chainstore, you flocked there immediately and every weekend, you hung out there with your friends.

Considering And Rejecting The Idea Of Becoming A Graffiti Artist

If you weren’t hanging out in the local park, you were probably scouring the town for a bit of blank wall to practice your graffiti. You covered so many walls with your friends that at one point, you considered making a career of it, until you remembered that you hated spraying paint everywhere.

Silently Judging The People Who Still Live In Town

As soon as you were old enough, you fled your town and made your way to the big city but you still like to come back every now and then to check up on it. When you find out there are still people you know living there, you are genuinely shocked and when you see your friends again, you all judge them together.

Defending Your Nearest Supermarket Like It Was Your Child

The supermarket closest to your house was where you spent many afternoons dragging around with your parents and over time, it began to feel like a member of the family. When someone you knew and liked admitted to shopping elsewhere, then, you had a meltdown, and furiously defended its benefits.

Laughing At The Ridiculous Local Newspaper

The major headlines in your newspaper ranged from the laughable to the ridiculous and every week, you loved to pick up a local copy. The size of your town meant that nothing of interest really ever happened, so you were guaranteed an easy laugh.

Angrily Protesting About New Builds In Town

Even though you wanted your town to become more exciting, you didn’t want the integrity to be challenged. New properties and buildings, then, were a bit of a sore spot and you spent many weekends protesting new builds with your parents, angrily shouting at builders.

Constantly Complaining About Where You Lived

Where you lived was the bane of your life, and it’s all you could do not to complain about it everyday. You hated your parents for moving there and forcing you to live out your days in utter boredom, and you really let them know it.

Being Bored All Day, Every Day

Real boredom was a very familiar part of your life and you were completely at ease with having nothing to do during the day. On some days, you did nothing more than stare at your ceiling, fantasizing about your future in the city.

Joking To Friends About Your Awful Town

Your friends were in the same boat as you, and most of your bonding came from complaining about your home town. You made up so many jokes about where you lived that you all genuinely considered entering the comedy business.

Punching Someone In The Face That Slagged It Off

When new people came to your town and said bad things about it, though, you completely flipped. Outsiders complaining about the size of the streets, or the lack of shops were not welcome and if they said one bad thing, you really let them have it.