Small Towns

A few months ago, I babbled about how modern media has painted a guilty look on my face.  Today, I would like to rant about how modern media has given me paranoia.  haha- I love my life.

I grew up in a big city, nothing huge like New York, but a big city.  When I moved away to attend college, I moved to a much smaller city, but still a city.  Just counting the college kids, there are over 30 thousand plus people, not to mention all the people who actually live there.  I felt like it was really small because I didn't have a car and had to walk everywhere. Anywhere outside of my 30 minute walking radius basically didn't exist.  Throughout my life, the only time I ever saw small towns was either when we drove through them on road trips or when they were on my favorite TV shows.  Unfortunately for me, my favorite TV shows in high school where CSI and NCIS, so the small town was portrayed as having its first murder in several generations, the local cops are completely clueless as to how to deal with things, and the big city police come in to catch the bad guy.   Now, I think it's wonderful that there are places with such low crime rates, but that doesn't change the fact that the only time an episode ever centered on these small towns was when the crime of the decade occurred.

My current paranoia problem stems from the fact that I've recently moved to a "community" (it's not even big enough to be labeled a town, though it does have it's own zip code) for a summer internship.  There are approximately 80 full-time residents. The kind woman who picked me up at the shuttle station and dropped me off at my new home mentioned how few people ever lock there doors because there is nothing to worry about up here except for the bears, and they can't open the doors anyways.  There is a post office and a fire station, but crime is so rare that there aren't even have security guards in the office buildings.  I feel very blessed to be here during the day.  The trees are beautiful, the environment is peaceful, and everyone talks to me because they are surprised to see someone they don't know.  I feel slightly less blessed at night and I look out my windows into the pitch black night wondering what is out there because this is the point in CSI where the young girl suddenly realizes she isn't the only one in the house.  So, long before sunset, I lock and bolt the doors tight, because I've somehow convinced myself that if I don't I will be the victim in this poor communities first ever murder investigation.

PS: There is no need to worry about me (this is especially for you, Mom, I know you read this).  This was how I felt the first night I slept here, I'm not quite so paranoid now... but I still bolt the doors. hahaha