Shootin' it Straight - One County Over (FREE ACCESS)

One county away, they have much nicer things. There’s a water park for the children. They have more restaurants than one could imagine. You could mix activities into a hat and pull out a new form of entertainment every day for a week. They have better bypass roads. They undoubtedly have better employment opportunities. If someone is so inclined to take their children out for frozen yogurt on a Tuesday, it's always possible. If a couple is seeking nightlife, there are bars with neon blazing. Heck, their garbage trucks may never break down, and all the potholes may be forever filled.

While I'm well aware our county isn't perfect—and through the lens of modern society, we are lacking many of the niceties our neighboring areas enjoy—I wouldn't change a thing. I cringe at the idea of development. I much prefer to shuttle myself 30 minutes to the highway for employment, eateries, entertainment, or any of the things many seem to clamor for.

I'm not naive; I know inevitable growth is coming to my beloved county. London, Berea, and other areas are simply too large for the eventual push away from the city not to spread into rural areas. It’s already evident in the outskirts of surrounding counties, as people seek that perfect balance between country living and a short dash to town. While there are things to nitpick in our leadership and shortcomings to acknowledge, the same is true one county over. I personally wouldn't trade our way of life for morally bankrupt leadership that brings a boom to the county. I detest the cliques in more “advanced” counties. I want to stab myself in the eye with a blunt #2 pencil just sitting in London traffic. While we’re bogged down in controversy over what day the garbage is collected, Berea is collectively sinking under its own self-inflicted policies. Progress is a double-edged sword, and I’d prefer to stall it as long as possible.

I'll gladly take my neighbor's broken-down lawnmower decor over a mandate that requires my yard be trimmed accordingly on Tuesdays. I like my casual stroll into the local clerk’s office over a sterile DMV. I enjoy my biggest delays in driving being Glenwood moving hay. The same farms being passed down, without being turned into Weeping Oaks Estates, suits me best. We may be behind the times. We lack the tax dollars generated by a massive influx of business. We lack the population that usually comes with such things. According to some, we’re missing out on a few of the finer things in life.

But we also lack traffic jams, council meetings over mandatory ordinances, subdivisions taking over every piece of flat land, and leaders who are truly corrupt. The old saying comes to mind: Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it all. I don’t view what our county lacks as shortcomings. They’re our greatest attributes—and they’re worth the fight to preserve.