Livin' in a College Town Paradise...

I don't know why, but when I decided to write a post about living in a college town, the song Livin' in a Gangster's Paradise popped in my head.  I just go with it...

Hubby & I have lived in the same rental house, in the same college town, for almost 4 years now.  You might know how I feel about our house, but you may not know how I feel about my town, so I wanted to talk about how much of an impact the town you live in has on your lifestyle.

From here

I grew up in a township.  If you don't know what that is, it's basically an area that doesn't have a town or any sort of city center.  It's a post office that serves a "town" that's only houses.  Our township had tons of people living in it, but no grocery stores or restaurants or cute shops or anything really other than houses.  We had lots of pretty lakes (like the one above, which is in the township I grew up in) so lots of people lived there in order to live on a lake.  We didn't live on a lake though.  I felt like there was no place to go, & we didn't have sidewalks to go anywhere anyway.  I think this is part of why I really like cute towns with great little city centers with parades & festivals & farmers markets & that awesome feeling of community.

From here

After college, I lived in a ton of different suburbs.  I wanted to move to a college town or a city, but the jobs I was able to get were in the suburbs.  I dreamed about moving to Chicago, which seems to be where all the midwest kids go that want to go to the "big city".  I felt stuck.  I was single & felt alone.  It didn't seem like anything happened in the suburbs.  It felt like there was no place to go again.

From here

Right before living to where we live now, I lived in an amazing small town kind of community about a half hour drive from where we're at now.  I LOVED it.  It had cute little shops like a pottery place & a dog bakery & a wine bar & an awesome little local coffee shop.  It had festivals & races & parades & farmers markets & concerts.  The library was amazing & there was a part with a fountain in town.  There were beautiful houses & great places to walk my dog & fun places to eat or go out for a martini.  There was a 17-mile long paved trail that went through about 5 different towns in the area that came through our town which was great for biking or running.  It. Was. Great.

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Now, we live in a college town.  It's not really a big city, but it's not really a cute small town or a suburb either.  It's a town that is defined by the giant University in it.  It does have a lot of cultural opportunities, food, festivals, races, parades & a great farmers market too like my old little town.  But, parking is bad & the waiting to get a seat anywhere is sometimes too long to be worth it.  Places seem to be more crowded & more college-y & less townie.  Traffic has increased substantially since the students came back this past weekend.  So while it is in many ways like my favorite old town, it's really not.  The population is too transient for me to feel the kind of sense of community I used to feel in the smaller town.

I have never really lived in a big city other than the summer I spent interning in Washington DC in college, so I can't really comment on that.  But I'm certain that my favorite of the township, suburbs, small town & college town is the small town.  Technically, my lovely small town crush is kind of a suburb too, but it doesn't really feel like it.

What kinds of towns have you lived in?  Do you have a favorite?  Are you living in the type of town that you love now?