"Stadtliche luft macht man frei" is an old German saying. City air makes you free. Life in a small town can be stifling. That close-knit family wants you to be just like them. God forbid you want to do or see anything new. The moving-to-a-big-city trope is as old as cinema, and has strong roots in reality.

Mr green text has no idea what he's talking about.

I grew up on a farm you're telling me that was an idyllic life?

Farmwork is stupidly long days in awful weather, it's either hot, or freezing cold, or raining, or snowing. The pay is effectively abysmal and makes you wish you worked in Starbucks on minimum wage because that would be an improvement. You have all this necessary equipment you've had to "buy", which despite costing more than most houses is about as reliable as a Soviet era tank.

And that's just growing props if you're mad enough to also raise cattle then it's even worse because you've got all them to deal with and sheep in particular are more suicidal than a depressed lemming.

But hey, you get a nice view.

Because movies like that belong on the “Lifetime TV” or “Hallmark Channel”. It’s been done. Maybe yet another “Can’t fix stupid” reductionist country wisdom beats city slicker smarts? Or make fun of city people who don’t know how to ride a horse?

That, or nobody wants to watch movies with people sitting around bonfires drinking cheap beer on your truck tailgate.

I grew up rural. It isn’t that exciting.

Eh, my friend actually did that. I assumed that she had some sort of awful family she was running from, but actually they're nice and she visits them on holidays. She just wanted to be in the big city so much that she was willing to rent a single room in a bad neighborhood and constantly look for odd jobs rather than live out in the countryside with her parents.

Anon has never heard of the term "target audience".

She had 275 siblings. Getting away from that farm was the smartest thing she's ever done. She has no hope of any kind of meaningful inheritance. I'm honestly surprised a farm could support that many rabbits and still turn any kind of profit. It must have been subsidized out the wazoo. The last thing it needs is her hanging around, getting hitched to some redneck just out of high school, popping out a couple hundred hungry mouths of her own right before the inevitable foreclosure and declaration of martial law as the farmpocalypse occurs when her parents finally kick it and the tens-of-thousands of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren raze the countryside in search of fodder. Just ask an Australian what rabbits are capable of.

Being clear, living in the sticks for 42 years of my life wasn't ideal. That is unless you like living in a dry county surrounded by narrow-minded, puritanical shitbirds that were working OT to make sure people either went to church, or publicly shame them if they weren't. There was also the in crowds that held people back or elevated them, depending on which family you were related to.

I do miss the hunting and fishing, though I can head back any time I want to do that. Meanwhile, I'll stay where I can maintain my chill by having copious resources readily available when I want them, and enough anonymity to enjoy them without anyone asking me where I was last Sunday.

Why do we accept that urban life is worse than rural life?

Because these characters are usually young and cities are exciting. Wanting to get away from people tends to happen later in life. That said, I know plenty of people in their 40s/50s who love city living.

I've lived in high urban, low urban, suburban, and rural. They all have pros and cons.

If you're dating tho, the city is way better, but good luck finding practice space - if you're into that sort of thing.

Lives my ideal life

Ftfy

She wasn't bigoted enough to become a small town cop so she had to become a city cop.

Her dream was to be a cop. Having it be a low paying career, living in a small apartment, and being away from friends and family are things we call sacrifices.

You know, after leaving the country: I really don't mind losing connection with my racist family members joking about how "dropped nickels stay on the ground since picking them up is worthless."

And I certainly don't miss them and others bashing my gay friends for being different.

The open country has a lot of potential, but unfortunately a lot of people outside of the metropolitan are dumb and shit and stay prejudiced out of comfort and having no reason to learn.

Into the Wild was kind of the inverse of this. Obviously it didn't work out for the guy, but why does it have to? He had an idea he wanted to achieve and followed his dreams

Because those "loving family members" IRL are usually nosy dickheads, and there is no dating scene in small towns. So it's either marry your cousin, or move to the city.

Not to mention job opportunities...

I my experience I am seeing how the trend goes on the other direction and more and more people around me actively choose to leave the city and go to rural areas. I think that this tends to happens around the mid 30s,!not exclusively, and might be also related to an specific location. I am central Europe based. It's just my personal experience tough.

I personally think a good life should have both: A place where you can rest, be free and enjoy the beauty of nature to the fullest and a place that makes you realize how fucked up society is and how important it is to fight the good fight.

I pity people who never make it out of the city. And i think people hiding away from the harsh reality of cities are being selfish. but not in an evil way.