Most people think Camden, North Carolina is a small do nothing town, but this is far from true. Yes, it is a small rural town, however, that does not limit it because neighboring cities cannot compare to the refreshing calmness found here. A person’s imagination can run free here, free from all the distractions in today’s society.

Camden does not have malls or skate parks or anything of the sort. If the weather is nice, then you are outside and that is just the way it works. As a child, my sister and I would be outside from when we got home from school until dinner time. We would ride our bikes, wind blowing in our faces, for what seemed like miles, and it seems no matter how far out we went it was nothing but two lane roads and farm land.

It is a slower lifestyle, here people spend Sundays at home with their families, no exceptions. All the stores in town are closed by six in the evening. The courthouse is the size of the average one story house. It consists of three window where you might receive help from a teller (one always seems to be closed), one courtroom (size of the average classroom), and a jail that would hold about eight inmates.

Camden is a peaceful little town where a person can just take a deep breath, the kind that makes your lungs feel like balloons being blown up, slow down and start to enjoy life a little more. But if you crave the hustle, bustle, and “excitement” that only a city can provide with its endless back noise of people talking, cars driving, and people stressing unimportant things, Elizabeth city is only about a ten minute drive away.

Now that I live in the suburbs, and dwell in the city, I long for that simpler life I lived as a child. I still crave Camden. A place with plentiful space and time, time to spend with family and friends, time to enjoy the world around you.