“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” We’ve all heard that saying before, whether it’s when we think someone’s life is better than our own, when another class in school seems more fun, when your friend gets something you’ve always wanted but could never afford; the possibilities are endless. For many of us, the saying even rings true when we compare the nearby towns and cities to our own. But sometimes, this classic clique has some truth to it, which is why I would change a few things in my small town of Christiana.     

 The first thing I would change to my town is to add speed bumps on the street I live on. The road goes straight to a nearby town called Quarryville, with only two stop signs where the roads that intersect are almost deserted; not to mention there’s no cops anywhere on the road at any given point in time. Every day my street turns into a dangerous makeshift highway where the citizens drive cars at sixty or more miles per hour, even though the speed limit is only thirty-five miles per hour. Riding bikes, or even walking alone, are out of the question for fear of being run over by someone who’s not paying attention.

Another item of my concern is not having a police department. If my family and I, or my neighbors, were to have an emergency that requires the police, we would have to wait forty-five minutes to a hour for the police to arrive, which is often too late. My fire department and paramedics are bordering on the brink of shutting down due to lack of funds; events to raise money are held almost every other week. I would give my town funding to have a local police department and to not force my fire department and paramedics to constantly hold events or face closing down.

I would also give funding to have more “planned-parenthood,” and sexual health education and clinics in my area. At the time of this writing, the nearest one is in New York,New York, about three to four hours away. By giving citizens in my town easy access to methods of birth control, testing for sexually-transmitted diseases,  and sexual health education, I can lower the amount of STDs and unplanned pregnancy in my town, because you can’t know something if you haven’t learned it yet.

I understand that small towns exist within counties and states, but not helping small communities to make themselves safer is unnecessary. If Mayors and officials do not help small communities, the effects will be disastrous and extremely damaging to the well being of residents in small towns.