Did you ever read that story as a child? I went to a lecture this morning about the importance of place, and the identity you associate with certain places. I’ve spent time living in both city and countryside, and in more recent times I’ve done a lot of running between the two. On my bus ride home today I began to think about which I would choose to settle down in, which I prefer. What I realised though is that one tends to cancel out the other, they’re such different extremes. After spending a couple of weeks in the busy city, where one can hop on a bus at any time of day or night and do anything, I often find myself needing to escape to a quieter place. I’m lucky in that my parents live in the suburbs surrounded by endless greenery and it’s only a 45 minute journey away, so every once in a while I can run away there and feel I have a bit of space to slow down and take a minute to breathe.
What interests me though is that during the summer when I move out of my university halls and move back to my parent’s house, it doesn’t take more than a month of being in such a quiet, empty space that I begin to crave the excitement of the city. The countryside, despite being a huge open space confines me, I feel I have less freedom. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to decide where to settle, I like to be able to uproot myself and change my surroundings, so in a way I don’t feel I can connect to one particular place. What about you? Are you a town mouse or a country mouse?
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