ESSAY TOPIC 9 : Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

I’ve grown up in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, the largest city of the country. My city is full of life, joy, colors and there are lots of interesting places to visit. I’ve always been loving living in the big city, but as always big cities have loads of disadvantages that sometimes make me wish to live in a smaller city/town. Unfortunately, I’ve never experienced living in a small town. But by comparing small towns with big cities the difference is obvious. So I prefer to live in a big city.

Firstly, big cities are relatively more developed than small towns. Especially in Armenia, as a developing country, it takes a long time for small towns to develop. It’s really hard for citizens living in a small countries be aware of everything, to develop and be modern. Every year we have a school camp to one of the small but the most beautiful towns of Armenia, Stepanavan. This January will be the 5th year that I visit it. And I remember the first time we visited it, I didn't like the town at first, because it was not developed yet, there were no good hotels to stay at, people were wearing worn-out cloths, so the difference between the capital and the small town was huge. But during some time I’ve noticed how everything was changing and getting better in Stepanavan, even though it takes a long time.

Secondly, people think in a different way in small towns, and in my opinion it’s all because of the place that they live. Maybe they are not aware what is happening in the big cities, or they just know a little and sometimes it’s even hard to communicate with them as they think differently. One time I was at the bust stop and I heard two people arguing, one of them was modern big city citizen, the other one was a villager. They got in a conflict just because of the misunderstanding. They were arguing about a nonsense thing. But it sounded even funny to me. So this shows how great impact has the place that we live, on our behavior.

Then, in big cities you know everything quickly, you’re aware of everything. And everything starts from the big city, people create something in big cities then they transfer it to smaller towns. So citizens of big cities experience everything first, and then the citizens of small towns. For example, the development of smart phones, smart computers and other modern technologies. It took a long time for villagers or small town citizens to know about new technologies, to get used to it, to like it. And some citizens of small towns don’t accept this new technology, not because they don’t like it but because they don’t understand it and don’t know how to use it, because people living around them don’t know either. But if they lived in a bigger city they would accept it.

So, in conclusion, I prefer to live in a big city, as the life in big cities is  vigorous. People live free, happy they participate in lots of activities, they meet new people.  People in small towns experience everything a little bit later than in big cities. In my opinion nothing special is happening in small towns, though people live calmer in small towns, but I still love the active city life.

(written by Mariam Mirzoyan)