text: Picture this. You live in a small town, a really small town. Heck, would you consider this a town? There’s only fifteen households spread apart from each other, each with some farmland. Besides that, there’s a quarter mile Main Street with a diner, post office, gas station, auto shop, general store, fire station, and a community building. These places are quiet, as farming is what almost everyone does here. It’s really only by appointment that the diner, auto shop, and general store are open since on any given day, not many of the residents would be there. You may have noticed there wasn’t a police station. Everyone here knows each other and gets along. There’s never any speeders (residents don’t really care), no shoplifting, and no shootings. This town is twenty some-odd miles off the nearest highway and the only other people they see is for deliveries and mail. That’s it. You may have also noticed there wasn’t any hospital or medical office. If there ever an emergency, residents have to travel the twenty something miles to the highway and then drive some more to the nearest hospital. It’s a quaint little town, with nothing around it for miles. It’s like you’re in your own separate world. Everything is quiet besides the occasional tractor passing by and the wind rustling the wheat and corn. At points it’s just yourself standing in the field looking out at the vast nothingness: corn, corn, and more corn. Walk over to the next field: wheat, wheat, and more wheat. It’s a life you were born into and can’t escape. Day after day is the same routine. Wake up at 5am, start work in the fields, have breakfast, work some more. Have the same lunch you have almost every day then help out the neighbors. Evening comes and you can finally relax and have dinner. It’s the beginning of September, the time of year where most everyone is back at school. It’s the time of year when the sun is setting around 7:30 and the heat from August has subsided. It has cooled off. You just finished dinner and it’s now 7:00. After a few quick chores around the house, you step outside on the back porch and sit on the rocking chair staring out at the sunset. It’s a purple sunset, something seen all the time here. The slight breeze is still there rustling the wheat and corn. It’s still quiet. The only noise is the creak from the rocking chair. Wow. You’re at peace. No distractions, no social media, no light pollution, no noise, nobody as far as eye can see, no hassles, no worries. You sit back taking everything (or I guess the nothing) in, staring into the starry sky. This. This is what I like. And I won’t trade it for anything else. I’ll live like this the rest of my life. My children will be just like me, doing everything I have done and experiencing moments like this, pure bliss. This is, and will always be, a simple lifestyle.