Growing up in a small town, I knew everyone and everyone knew me.  There were approximately 3500 people in our town.  As soon as I could, I left in search of excitement and opportunity.  I rarely look back with any regret and have enjoyed my life immensely.  I have come to value my privacy and enjoy living in a bigger city even though “Nobody knows your Name.”

However, occasionally I am reminded that there are trade-offs.  If you stand in the center of my hometown you could walk a mile in any direction and likely be on the edge of town.  Getting anywhere is a matter of minutes not hours.

Currently, I commute an hour to an hour and a half to get work each day.  I am grateful that my husband and I work in close proximity and are able to ride in one car.  That’s great until something happens.

Recently I was working a little late and waiting for my husband to pick me up.  He had called to say he would be there in about 10 minutes, so I was surprised when he called back within a couple of minutes.  Assuming he was warning me he was stuck in traffic, I grabbed the phone.  Nope, he was stuck but not due to traffic.  His car was dead in the middle of a fairly heavily trafficked street.  We decided to call our roadside service and began to reach out to friends for a ride to pick up my car.

After several phone calls, we determined that it was just too complicated to find someone to pick each of us up and drive an hour to get us to my car and then spend another hour returning back to their homes. We also had to find a way to get to our car and talk to the service department where it had been towed.   I have great friends and they would have been willing, but it was too much to ask.  Instead, several kind strangers helped push the car off the road and the tow truck dropped my husband near a rental car agency.  Half an hour later, he was at my office to pick me up and we were able to head to the dealer.

It reminded me that in my home town, I could have walked to my house to get my car, someone I knew well or was related to would have given me a ride and if someone I barely knew happened by, it would have been safe to accept a ride.

It’s a good reminder that living in a community of any size, you still need to have strong relationships and that commuting is not much fun.  I do love my life and wouldn’t change it but maybe I’m a little more grateful for growing up  with a wonderfully established community and I remember that sometimes it’s good to go where “Everybody Knows Your Name!”