A Tale of Two Cities Holly Moore Eng. 121 Nichole Anderson-Harris November 17, 2008 A Tale of Two Cities Throughout our lives we face many changes: a new job, a new school, a new home, and even a new town. Some people may never leave the town that they were born in, but others decide to venture out into the world whether for personal reasons or business reasons. For some, living in the same town for a lifetime is perfectly normal, but to others it is stifling. I was one of those people who felt closed in and stifled in my home town of Elgin, Illinois. In May of 1998 I realized that if I was going to make a change, I needed to do it soon. Thus began my search for a new place to live. I had an idea of what type of town I wanted to live in, and I just needed to find it. I wanted somewhere a little slower-paced than Elgin, where cars were not lined up for blocks waiting for the streetlight to turn green. I wanted somewhere that I could ride my bicycle and not have to worry about being flattened like yesterdays gum on the sidewalk. I wanted somewhere that people waved at you, even if they did not know you. I found that place two months after I began my search. It began as a vacation to see my mother in Keyesport, Illinois and turned into a life-altering experience: one that I now wish I had thought more about before plunging in head first. I got my wish for a slow-paced town, but at costs I had not thought of before beginning my search. Six months later, as I was driving home from work, my car broke down. I was working the overnight shift and it was about three in the morning and extremely cold outside. This was the night that I started to realize I may have made a bad decision in moving to such a rural area. I tried flagging down the few cars that drove toward me but no one stopped. This surprised me a bit because if I was in the same situation in Elgin, not only would there be many more cars on the road, but people would stop to help you. When this failed to...