I never thought I’d want to live in the country. As a kid, I abhorred living a 30-minute drive away from friends, no trick-or-treating because the houses were too far away, getting snowed in and having to cancel social engagements, and living the slow-life. How then did I decide to attend a college in rural Maine?

By the time I finished undergrad, I wanted a bit of life in the fast-lane. I wanted nights clubbing with friends. I wanted cultural diversity. I wanted politics and swag. I wanted urban living where neighborhoods are walkable and a work desk that was a few blocks away from home. So, I snagged a job, in politics, and moved to Washington D.C.

My 20s were filled with nights out on the town and traffic held up by the Presidential motorcade driving up Connecticut Avenue at rush hour. Farmers markets on the weekends. Wonderful dining at some of the nation’s finest restaurants and some of the best dives. I met lots of interesting characters, volunteered to help combat adult-illiteracy, and I had fun.

After I married, I moved to the suburbs and started a family. I felt I had been there, done that, had a lot of fun, and I was ready for a new phase in my life. I now live in an over populated suburb, next to too many people, stuck in traffic and road construction, battling bad municipal water, vehicle emissions, no open yard, and a really high cost of living.

I am tired of keeping up with the Joneses, who ever they are. And I want my children to be able to grow up amongst nature. I want them to find bugs and spiders. I want them to see what they planted grow and produce food to eat. I want them to respect the forest, it’s plants, and it’s inhabitants. I want them to learn how to swim, ski, and ice-skate, and experience this plant’s awesome gifts of nature.

It just broke my heart the other day when my son asked if he could put on his boots and go outside to play and I had to say “no” because we don’t have anywhere to play out front. (The other problems were that his sister and I were sick  and that the snow is so deep he wouldn’t be able to navigate in it anyway.) I so wish he had a place outside to build that awesome snow fort…and maybe I wish I just had snow-pants.

There are certainly some things I like about this heavily populated area. The grocery is less than two miles away. The farmer’s market is less than a mile away. Local farms are less than a hour drive in the car. We have access to so many international foods and natural food products. Cultural diversity is rich here. The public school system is healthy and the infrastructure is perpetually on the front political burner.

There are a lot of things keeping us here in suburbia, and I suppose I am just going to have to be smarter than the average Jane and think up creative ways my children can learn about what is real in this world and how to deal with what is not. But maybe, one day, my children will be able to play outside every day; and it will just be a given that that is what living is all about.