Anonymity in the City

I grew up in a town of around 20,000 people in Arkansas. My mom works in the town hospital and my dad is a big kahuna in the local factory. Between the two of them, they know almost every person within 30 miles....not to mention that my grandpa either knows EVERYone or gets to know everyone. Add to the fact that we were actively involved in one of the largest churches in town and my dad has thousands of cousins in every nook and cranny of the county. I had no chance of getting away with anything in high school. It was like growing up in a fish bowl. I couldn't drive around town without seeing 15 people I knew or bumping into 27 different people I knew in Walmart. Even if I didn't know everyone, there were always a lot of familiar faces around. Moving to Kansas City (metro area pop. is about 2 million) was terrifying and liberating all at the same time. I've grown to love it. I miss my family...of course...but I like going to Walmart without a drop of mascara on and not wondering if I'll run into someone from high school who will gossip about how I used to be pretty and wear makeup but fell apart in college! HAHA. I love that I can drive in this crazy city traffic and I think, "I could make a crude gesture and no deacons I know would see it." It's lovely. For some reason I never get mad enough in traffic to actually offend someone. Dodging in and out of city traffic actually calms my nerves instead of raising my blood pressure like most people. It wasn't as socially accepted to dodge in and out in AR....people just scoot along at their own pace and generally don't know the real intentions of passing lanes and turning lanes. There's a lot more people up here that have no idea where they're going, though. And that puts me at ease because I never have a clue where I'm going (even back home) but now I have an excuse for being born without a sense of direction. Thank God for GPS!