City Life Vs. Rural Life

In the movie "Mean Girls", Cady Heron, a fifteen year old girl, spent most of her childhood living in Africa. She was home-schooled, and didn't have that much interaction with others her age. Her idea of fun was working and playing with the different animals in the country. Then her parents decided to leave their zoologists jobs in Africa in order to relocate back to the United States. Now Cady had to enter into the world of city life, which was a total culture shock. The city had malls, parties, places to hang out, and public schools. She had to deal with the cliques of teenagers like the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds, the outcasts, and the mean girls. She went through her journey of finding out where she belonged. Even though this is just a movie, it's plot portrays the reality that there is a difference between city and rural living.

What ever town or city a person calls home, most of the time there will be conflicts that occur. In order to keep the peace, law enforcement is usually in place. In less populated counties crime seems to happen less often. A typical Jones County newspaper will cover the local high school sports, upcoming events in Gray, Ga., and a few names of loved ones that have pasted in the obituaries; but every once in a while a robbery, drug bust, or domestic violence case will appear on the front page.

While living in the city, crime is to be expected. Alot of big cities are tourists sites and have many attractions for them to visit. Thiefs and muggers tend to prey on the visitors because they're easy targets. Most tourists do not know their way around the new area and can become careless about how they carry themselves. Also gang involvement contributes to the higher crime rates in cities. There are multiple gangs like crips and bloods who only agree on disliking and hurting others who don't agree with their gang. They're full of hatred toward one another which brings on the frequent fighting, stealing, and killing. This violence begins to tear a riff in the community.

In order to get around town, some kind of transportation is always needed. Cars are the most common in this century, whether a person is in a city or in a rural area. In most towns, a car will be your best friend. Some towns might not have all of the stores, industries, or facilities a citizen would want to have access to; because of this drives to near by cities are called for. In the town i reside in now, if i wanted to continue taking gymnastics classes year round i would have to drive to Macon, Ga. Its only a thirty minute drive, but that may be an inconvience to some. There are no city buses, and it's rare to find a taxi on the roads. Though there are school buses for students who do not have their own way of transportation, having a car would be the best decision for those living in a rural area.

Most who live in the city are always on the move, which is to be expected because the city never sleeps. There are so many different buildings and attractions that city dwellers come across everyday. For them to reach their destination, multiple ways of transportation are available. City's often fund a transportation system. Atlanta's government provides the Marta for its locals and visitors. This is a subway/bus systems that goes through different parts of the city, dropping off its passengers at designated spots. There are alot of pedestrians walking through the city. This is because some distances are not very far from one another. Also the taxi business does better in the city because of limited parking, weather, and other circumstances. A local might have decided to walk to work one day, but when it was time for them to leave rain began to fall causing him/her to catch a taxi. Although cars are still the most popular way of transportation in the city, people have other options which may help them avoid traffic.