Website: https://theviewersperspective.com

I (like many others) love shows like Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and Gilmore Girls. However, as someone who grew up in cities, I’ve never quite understand why that was the case . The lifestyle I’d experienced and the images I’d see unfold on the screen were very different.

For a while I felt like an oddball. But my mind was quickly put to ease when I realised that a lot of people in my immediate circle also found comfort in similar shows, and I began to wonder why that was the case.

After watching Virgin River, like I was dissecting a show for my Year 12 English assignment (if you know you know). I came up with the below theories.

1. We ultimately crave community and small towns seem to do it well. The people in those towns unite during adversity. Community support helps them overcome life’s hurdles and gestures like that don’t always exist in big cities.
2. A lot of us want a simpler life. A freshly brewed coffee and a peaceful environment with family and friends that genuinely support us.
3. Our definition of rich has changed over the passage of time. In a day and age where things seem more uncertain than ever. A lot of us crave stability over the constant stresses that come with hustle culture.
4. We crave raw connection. In a generation where everything has a filter over it, we crave transparency and genuine support from those we love. Our circles have gotten smaller and our need to hold onto pretenses have decreased.
5. We crave that cozy feeling of comfort that seemed to exist on Christmas mornings in the early 2000s. I was born in 1994 and every day, I express gratitude for experiencing life before social media existed. I was blessed enough to experience friendships without photos to prove it and lucky enough to have meaningful conversations without feeling the need to vlog about it.
6. We crave jobs that require movement and interaction with nature. Don’t get me wrong, I love my stand-up desk and a good laptop screen. But the relief I felt when I was picking grapes for a winery in rural Australia was priceless. A wave of calmness swept over me for the hours I spent away from Teams notifications and Outlook emails.
7. We miss in person conversations. Small town living means that people are always interacting with each other. They choose face-to-face interactions instead of opting for no contact delivery. Those everyday conversations create a sense of community. A sense of belonging in a culture that is only getting more isolated as the technology advances.

I hope to experience that ‘small town living’ at some stage in this lifetime. But if not, I will always aim to express my gratitude to friends and family, that always showed up when it mattered.