Rural Looking at Suburban

I grew up in a cow pasture. Literally. My childhood home is set back 500 yards off of a narrow dirt road, surrounded by fields and stands of woods. Our one neighbor lives in an old farm house about a half mile away. A GPS search will lead you to an empty field on the wrong side of the road. The cattle grazing in the field across the road occasionally get out and show up in our yard. When the power goes out, we are the true end of the line. I used to wander outside to get a cell phone signal. My childhood home-life was truly rural. 

However, I went to school in small town suburbia. It took at least fifteen minutes to get anywhere from home, but the town I grew up in looks like every other American small(ish) town. All of my friends lived in typical suburban neighborhoods. As a child, I was extremely envious of their neighborhoods. There was something magic about riding bikes and scooters down a small street to a friend’s at the end of the cul-de-sac. They had halloween parades and lemonade stands. I had merciless gravel to ride my bike on and a swing out in the woods. Some of it was probably my social envy as an only child, but I used to think suburbia was amazing. 

As an adult, I find suburbia to be repulsive. I have found that I prefer a densely urban environment where everything is walkable, or I want to be back out in that cow pasture with no one around. I am not sure what caused my change of heart, but I have no love for four-lane roads, Walmarts, and “ticky tacky” houses.  Do millennials just like the city because it is hip? Do two architecture degrees predispose you to a hatred of suburbia?

Perhaps growing up in our own houses with buffers of manicured yard has created a social instability. Our parents talk of times when the neighbor would come over to borrow a cup of sugar, but now that is completely unheard of. Every apartment I have had in Clemson can be considered suburban, and I have never known my neighbors. It doesn’t matter how many times you smile or say hello, people just want to go back into their own private box. Suburbia gives the illusion of community living while still allowing people their private buffer. Maybe changing that social mentality is the first step to improving the majority of the American landscape.