There are advantages and disadvantages to living in both urban and rural environments. I myself have spent about half my life in both. I spent the first 17 years of my life in an area so desolate that even today there is no cell phone service. Since I ran away, I have continued to live in Portland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Maui, and Chicago. The only difference I see the most is that as I get older I miss the desolate place more and more. Maybe it's just because I'm missing out on my childhood. In Rebecca Skloot's book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" Henrietta spent her childhood in Clover, Virginia. Harvest tobacco and do heavy work in the fields. Even though my childhood was VERY different than that, in a weird way, I could relate. As a child I spent my summer days mowing a 5-acre lawn by hand and then raking it. The whole process took about 3-4 days, and when I was done, it was time to mow again. If I didn't, I was with my dad in his truck, driving miles and miles of dirt roads to find wood to cut. We were in the mountains from dawn to dusk chopping wood, I hated it! I did all this for a meager allowance of $3 a week. I also had to cut down blackberry bushes, pull weeds from the gardens, and do other hard work, which any child would probably hate. Besides all my personal inconveniences of living in the woods, there are also inconveniences for everyone when you're that deep. The fact that you have to drive forever to get something. Our closest real grocery store was 20 miles away, both my parents' jobs were 20 miles away. Each time we had to go to Costco or buy new clothes; 70 miles one way. There were no police or firefighters. We had neighbors spread out for a few miles, but other than... middle of paper... ants to eat. I can see live entertainment and homeless people boxing with themselves. The opportunities are endless! Sure, crime is higher and my hatred of traffic and constantly running red lights is on another level, but that's what I signed up for. Sometimes I miss living in the country, but I know that if I went back, I would find myself going crazy with boredom and returning to a crime-ridden urban oasis in no time. Works Cited The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Rebecca Skloot Page 19-20 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Rebecca Skloot Page 146http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/population-migration.aspx #.Ux9a4dyDRuYhttp://data.worldbank.org /indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZShttp://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZShttp://www.victimsofcrime.org/ library/crime-information-and-statistics/urban -e-crime-rural