I didn’t really choose the community I live in now. I live in a rural place, in a tiny, unincorporated town of a few hundred people. It’s right next to other smaller towns, but in the whole valley, the population is maybe around 5,000 people. It’s a bit of a disconnected and changing community, with some people connecting more to the nearby resort town and some people more involved in farming/agriculture. Some people are here because they have been here for ages; some people are moving in here to be up in the mountains.

I like it here. Most of the time. I don’t like how high the house prices are here. Sometimes I wish for more restaurants nearby (but I’m also glad that I don’t have them and I save money by not eating out much). I wonder if we lived in a bigger place, my kids might have more opportunities (but maybe they would have less).

I’ve lived in different places. I grew up in a town that had grew from a more agricultural community to a place that is very busy and crowded in not very long. I’ve lived in a rural town in Nevada with both a Family Dollar and a General Dollar. I lived in a very tiny town in Wyoming with a K-12 school with 7 people in the kindergarten and first grade class. And I also lived in the middle of nowhere for a while, 45 minutes away from Moab.

I really don’t have much experience living in the suburbs and anything urban. I didn’t decide to live in rural places; that’s just where life took me. And sometimes, when I drive into the city, I wonder what life would be like if I lived in a neighborhood with lots of families. Or if I could actually walk to somewhere. Or if I had to deal with parking issues. Or if everything was more expensive.

There are some places that are better than others (there is a reason we left Nevada).

But I like where I live when I am grateful for what I have. When I seek to make friends. When I got outside and explore. When I volunteer and get involved. When I fix up my house as if I’m going to live there for forever. When I plant trees and start groups and enroll my kids in sports and hope for the best.

It doesn’t really matter where you live. It matters more about how you choose to live there.

Also, I can own ducks and geese here, and that’s pretty cool.