Town or Country? Pros and Cons

Since I was born I have been living in a village. At first, our family, my mum, dad, my brother and I, lived with our grandparents in their house in a small village. I lived there till my sixth birthday and as I can remember it was a life full of children´s games, friends and happiness, because we were so carefree and took things easy. After that, we moved to the town(formally a town), which could also be categorized among bigger villages. So I haven´t changed the environment so much. Although I have to admit I have never tried living in a proper town or a city and don´t know much about it, I probably wouldn´t change my way and style of living. But let me start from the beginning and have a detached look at both possibilities.

Living in a town surely brings to everybody lots of advantages. When I look at it from my position, as a young person who starts her career and also wants to get more education and knowledge, a city or a bigger town is exactly what I need. First of all, a town appears to us as a great supply of vacancies.  That´s why cities usually have the lowest rate of unemployment. I´m not saying everybody finds a job of his dreams there, but when you look for a work, you are definitely closer to finding it in a town. Unless, though, you want to work at a farm. I think, it has been here within living memory. Rural people have been moving to cities to find their luck in a form of some kind of a job. Secondly, the other essential thing is education. And where can we find most of high schools and universities? Yes, in towns and cities, which are then full of young studying people.  And all of these influences also the social life in cities.

As towns are bigger not only by their area, but also by a number of inhabitants, there is a need of more improved social life. Extended sport centres, night clubs, theatres, cinemas and other cultural centres fill up spare time of people not only living in the core of it, but also in suburbs and nearby villages. The other advantage of a town is certainly a higher standard of health service, including hospitals, first aid stations and specialists among doctors. Lastly mentioned merit, but surely not last in reality, is a wide area network of markets, shops and large shopping centres, which, by dividing goods into many departments under one roof, save to buyers a lot of time.

But what about disadvantages of a town? Let´s not only praise it, but criticize it as well. As I wrote about shopping network, it is true that it is largely extended, but also the prices of goods and services don ´t belong among the lowest ones. The rule is, at least according to my experience, that the bigger the town is, the higher prices are. In addition, too many people in the streets of a town or a city make too much noise, drive too many vehicles and the result of all of this is too hectic atmosphere, stress and polluted air. Furthermore, hand in hand with polluted air goes also mess along the streets and polluted entire environment. What´s likely to be the most serious problem of a town, is a high level of criminality. A big town is a home for an every kind of a criminal element, beginning with pickpockets and ending with murderers and drug dealers particularly.

The other question is what type of a town or a part of a town we choose to live in. It is not a town like a town. We have to count, that when we move to bigger one, we can, on the one hand, accept those pleasant and attractive things, but all those disadvantages mentioned earlier go with it twice more as well. But if we want to link busy side of a town and its quieter side together, we can simply live in a suburb or a calmer part and don´t have to suffer from a noise and stress of a city centres all day long. Nowadays though, unfortunately especially in cities, there´s lots of parts which we´re afraid of to even walk through. There have been street gangs created, which threaten almost every person, who is so coureageous and try to walk along their territory.

On the other side of an imaginary barricade stands living in country. So what can this type of living offer to us? Contrary to towns, country can definitely pride on healthier environment. It´s polluted as well, but not at such a spread. Urban people will always spend their weekends at their cottages in countryside. And why is it so? Well, less traffic, less stress and fewer people altogether make a good result in the form of fresh air. Some people may consider country life to be too boring, but personally, I believe that there´s always something to do. It´s true, you can´t go to the cinema or theatre there, but spending time by taking long walks to forest joined with picking mushrooms, for example, doesn´t sound bad too. The other activity, which can fill up your time, is growing vegetables, fruit trees, flowers or breeding not only pets but also farm animals. And I can confirm, from my own experience, that it is sometimes quite fun. At last but not least, I would like to mention one great advantage, which cannot be offered by a town.
Keeping traditions. That´s the thing which is for rustic people so important and which differs them from urban people pretty much. Traditional costumes, ceremonies and feasts belong to their customs as well as night clubs and restaurants belong to city life.


But what about disadvantages? Has the country life any, then? The first and the biggest one presumably is lack of job opportunities, whose result is a necessity of everyday travelling to work to towns, what can be sometimes very frustrating. Another negative aspect of country life is also cognate to work. I´m talking about a hight of income you receive for your done work. I think, when you find a job in the country, your wage will definitely be lower, compared with a city one. Lastly, for somebody immaterial, for somebody else very important, is the fact, that in a village almost everybody knows everybody and no secrets exist there. I´m not sure if it´s good or not, it probably depends on everybody´s attitude to it. Yet, I think everybody needs at least a few people around him, a feeling that he belongs to some fellowship and when you live, for instance, in some backcountry just with your family members, it´s not always possible and it´s not very conductive too.

When we have to decide where to live, we have to regard all those things written above and much more. Look at, how country life, with its quiet, calm environment, job opportunities, which are usually merely in agriculture sector possible, in contrary to jobs in industry in towns and with its general life-style, can affect you and what can, on the other side, bring you, although a hectic, but full of entertainment, city life.

In my opinion, country life gives people more than life in a town. When my time to decide comes once, I will definitely choose a locality as near to country as possible. It´s true that as I´m a young person, starting my not only personal life but also my career, it would be better to live in a town, but as I mentioned earlier I´ve been living in country all my life and I´m accustomed to it. I like those walks in forest, calmness and peace. However, it is said that life is change and never say never, so who knows, maybe once I ´ll find myself in the midle of a block of flats in busy streets of some town.
All of it, though, will depend on my financial situation, personal life and conditions, which will be offered to me.

To summarize, each of us is a different person with different attitudes to life and everybody needs something else what satisfies him. Let´s just follow our feelings, ambitions and dreams and create our home in a place matching our ideas best.