About two weeks ago, Ms. Opal Scott, a Greenville resident, had her grandson, Josh, and his girlfriend, Theresa, visit her from Missouri. I was having a dinner party on that Saturday and the Missouri couple came along with another friend of mine I had invited.

The couple is from a very small town in Missouri where, as Theresa put it, "We have one store and one stop light." Theresa said it is a town where everyone literally knows everyone.

Having lived in several big cities, it was very hard for me to understand how living in a town with one store and one traffic light would be at all enjoyable. Even in Greenville, which has several traffic lights, I tend to get a little claustraphobic because I always have had the option of driving 30 minutes and still be surrounded by grocery stores, movie theaters and malls.

So, I asked Theresa what it was that she liked about living in the small town, and she said, "You know, everybody literally knows everybody, and for the most part, I really like that."

She also explained that she and her family had been through some ups and downs, and that she didn't think she would ever leave because of how close she was to her sister.

After Josh and Theresa left that night, I thought a lot about what they had said they liked about living in a small town. I came to the conclusion that a community is what you make of it.

In my life, I've been a part of different communities, but other than the school community, I've never been part of a place like I have here in Greenville. In the past 11 years, I think I have moved 11 times, and other than when I left Daphne, I never really had any hesitations about picking up and going.

Now, I know that I won't be in Greenville forever because I have too much of that big city mentality' in me, but I do know that when I do leave, it will be one of the hardest moves that I will make.

So many people in Butler County have had a strong impact on my life, and I have made friends here that I know will be with me through my life

people like Josh and Theresa.

So for those of you who also have that big city mentality' remember the words of Greenville Newspapers Publisher Eric Bishop, "a community is what you make of it."