Hi there. I want to tell you something… I live “in the country,” and, honestly, I love it.

So, I feel like, when I meet new people, especially online, they find it hard to believe that I actually live in a true rural area. Like, no, I don’t reside in a big city, no, I don’t reside in a small city, and no, I don’t even reside in a tiny town or village. Honestly, I live in what we folks out here like to call… the middle of nowhere.

But, again, a lot of people don’t even believe me when I say that, so… today, I’m going to just bust some myths, I guess, about rural life.

Because, no, I don’t live on a goat farm and, yes, we do have indoor plumbing.

First of All, I do Have Internet… But it Sucks.

If you live in a big city… or just any city, let’s be honest, you probably have plenty of options to get yourself reliable, fast internet access. And… I am envious of you.

Out here in the boon docks, we only have one option for internet access, and that’s satellite internet. And, contrary to what the commercials might say, it’s not all that reliable, and it’s not all that fast, and, perhaps most of all, it’s uber expensive. If you’re lucky enough to have a home in the middle of a 20-acre field devoid of absolutely any trees, you might be able to get land, signal-based internet access (the kind that bounces off of cell towers–whatever it’s called), but… when you live in a house that’s literally surrounded by forests on all sides, that’s kind of impossible.

There Are Lots of Farms… But I Don’t Operate Any

Now, rural life, especially in the midwest, often does run hand-in-hand with farming life. So, yeah, there are a bunch of farms near where I live… but, no, I don’t live on any of them.

Another common misconception I think people have about farmers, again, especially in the midwest, is that they are all… well, for lack of a better term, poor people. And, uh… that’s definitely not true, because I know for a fact that I’ve got a lot less money in the bank than every farmer within a 10-mile radius of my residence.

I mean, really, think about it… farmers have to own tons of heavy equipment, like tractors and combines, and they’ve got to have money saved up to fix ’em when something goes wrong or else they’d lose absolutely all of their crops. Livestock farmers need cash for feeding their animals, too, and, honestly, I have no idea where they get all this money from… but I’d kind of like to know their secret. Because then maybe I’d start up a farm…

I Don’t Live “Off the Grid”

I feel like this should be a given, but… yes, my house does have electricity, and we do have indoor plumbing. We don’t use an outhouse or anything. Unless… well, our power does go out every so often when a power line goes down, but I’m sure that happens sometimes in cities, too, doesn’t it?

Let me tell ya, though… I do know how to live off the grid, and I will pee in a bucket if needed. But… that’s just because I go camping with my fam quite frequently, and, you know, that’s a different story. When I’m at home, though, I don’t pee in a bucket… unless the power goes out and it’s urgent, you know?

Every Store Is Literally 20+ Minutes Away

Oh, sigh… another pitfall of rural life.

Yeah, a lot of city folk don’t realize how good they have it with food and grocery delivery services. Because, out here in the middle of nowhere, there is absolutely no options for deliveries of any kind (aside from the mail, we do still get that, thank the lord), and you gotta get everything yourself “from town…” Which is, for the record, a good 20-minute drive away.

Oh, and that’s just for groceries, mind you. If you wanna go to the mall or Hobby Lobby or something, that’s about an hour drive away to the really big city.

Now, I will say that our area is expanding a tinsy tiny bit, and they just opened a new dollar store about two miles away, which is, like, mind-blowingly close. So, I’ve been going there to get all of my cat food for the past few months, plus I get ice cream there on occasion for me, too. I mean, praise be for that.

But You Can Have a HUGE Yard

Honestly, I love being outside, and, where I live, there’s just so much space and fresh air that it’s hard to not love being outside. I mean, a lot of folks that live in a town or city hardly have a yard at all… and, if they do, they probably have it all fenced-in.

And, without a huge yard… how can you keep the pets happy? I mean, unless you just have a fish tank or something…

Plus it’s Quiet. Like, Really Quiet.

Now, I understand that neighbors can really put a damper on your day… just kidding, I don’t understand, because I don’t have neighbors!

Really, another great benefit of country livin’ is the peace and quiet. Out here, you pretty much get to do whatever you want because, let’s face it, there’s no pesky homeowners association on your back all the time, and there are never any neighbors remotely close enough to tell you to turn your music down. It’s really quiet unless you want to make some noise, and sometimes that’s pretty fun, too.

And the Views…

Are amazing.

Now, there really is no great purpose to this post… I just, honestly, wanted to share what rural life is actually like with y’all.

I also kind of wanted to explain the rural life because… well, it inspires a lot of the settings for my books! For example, in my entire Emma Lenford series, our setting takes place in fictional “Talket County,” Wisconsin, which I based loosely on the area I actually live in (even though I live in Indiana, but, ya know, same thing…), and the small town that our title character lives in is based on the town where I went to school. Which makes sense, you know, when you discover that I actually started writing the whole series while I was still in high school…

Other than that, though, that’s all I have for you guys today. Let me know, of course, if you are a fellow rural life-type… or, perhaps, if you’re a city slicker!

–Kari