When infrastructure and municipality were not yet developed, most people lived
in small towns. At that time, everyone knew each other. Nowadays, most people
leave their hometowns to live in the big cities where they only know a few
neighbors in their area. This essay will discuss the upsides and downsides of
living in a small community.
On the one hand, there are several reasons why living in the countryside is
beneficial. First of all, people could communicate with each other thoroughly
and could help each other easily. They lived near each other so they were
willing to help or support someone when they were in need. For example, if you
were in a hurry to work, you could entrust your kids to your neighbors, and
when they were having a problem, you would assist them again.
Moreover, living in a small society helped the young generation learn some
good things from the older ones. The elderly were the people who overcame and
had a lot of experiences in their lives. So they could definitely give us some
advice or share plenty of useful tips that they got. The younger people could
have a short conversation with them to get some information or knowledge
about lots of different fields such as finding a new job or a new accommodation.
Take my friend Nina as an example. She wanted to find a job after graduation,
but she had no clue about what job she wanted to do or what job would be
suitable with her major. Then, she met an elderly in her neighborhood and talked
with him for a while. He gave her lots of advice and encouraged her a lot which
made her more confident. In the end, she finally found a suitable job for her and
was so happy with this choice.
On the other hand, there were a number of disadvantages of living in a village
that people should take into consideration. One of the obvious drawbacks is that
there was not much access to education and learning. The villages were usually
located far from schools, so it was hard for students to go to school every single
day. This meant that most children did not have access to a good education. As a
result, they could not pursue higher education and this could stifle their curiosity
and elation in learning new knowledge.
Besides, there were few forms of entertainment for people, especially for
children. The small village was not large enough to build entertainment
facilities. So kids had to keep themselves occupied in their spare time by
organizing lots of games or finding something to do to prevent them from
boredom like flying kites or cycling around the fields. Children in the country
liked swimming in the river or climbing the tall trees. Those were so dangerous
that they could hurt the children or even break the children’s arms or legs.
All in all, although living in the countryside could bring about certain benefits
and make people feel safe because it was easy to help each other, its negative
consequences should not be overlooked, particularly the lack of access to
education opportunities.
