@Mo'MedMules: If you aren't procrastinating, then what are you doing with your life?
@Skc3015: So I just realized you may want to know about Joplin the city, not just the school. Let me try again xD
I've lived here for about 25 years (wow, quarter of a century. I'm old...) and I absolutely love it here. My plan (open to change, as is everything) is to return here to practice.
While Joplin is portrayed as a rural town, it really isn't anything of the sort. We have a lot of farm towns surrounding the area, but Joplin is a pretty large metropolitan area. We have a population of around 180k
[1]. That's a larger population than Mizzou (Columbia), but more evenly spread out across the generations (read: not college students). Rural is not really a good descriptor, imo.
People: Joplin is in the heart of the Bible belt and we actually act like Christians (most of the time). People are genuinely kind and willing to help you out. If you remember the major tornado that came through town in 2011, disaster recovery groups like FEMA were shocked to find that our citizens had pretty much everything well under control by the time they showed up. Our churches especially did a great job of mobilizing people and sending them where they were needed for cleanup. It really solidified in my mind that this is a very caring community.
Driving/Roads: Traffic is not even close to a problem (except maybe Rangeline road during rush hour). Roadwork used to not be a problem, but we are redoing our main street right now and it is a huge pain. We have at least 1 uber/lyft driver in town, but they are still relatively new. I am not certain how good taxi service is, most people here just own their own car. There is a public trolley system with a few stops, but it isn't really something you should depend on to get you places. Bike paths are becoming more common, the city council actually met a few weeks ago to discuss adding new bike lanes to existing roads.
Faith/Religion: Churches are everywhere. There is a joke in town that there is either a bank or a church on every street corner. They aren't wrong. We have every major denomination (except eastern Orthodox), but most are Baptist and nondenominational. There is also a Synagogue and a Mosque in town. I don't believe there are any Buddhist or Hindu Temples in the area, but I could be wrong.
Food: As far as food that you can find in the area, we have almost every major chain restaurant as well as a lot of local restaurants. Mexican is really popular here (huge Latino population means it's
mostly authentic). We also have a few great sushi places, some Thai restaurants, an upscale greek restaurant (with valet parking, fancy), and pretty much anything else you could want.
Activities: For outdoorsy people, there are a lot of great places to go on day hikes and even a couple good weekend hikes within 2 hours of Joplin. We have a ton of parks and a few pool complexes. There is a decently large (and overpriced) movie theatre and a couple smaller theatres in the area. If I remember correctly, an indoor skydiving place is being built just outside of town. We even have an Escape Room. If you want things to do (during the day) and you are willing to look, you won't get bored.
Nightlife:
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Shopping: We have a good sized mall here in town for shopping. In addition, tons of other shops are right next to the same area (like Khols, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target). Walmart is the major grocer here, but we also have Food4Less, Aldi, and a hand full of whole food stores (including an asian market) as well as farmer's markets.
Anyway, that's my speal on Joplin. Let me know if you need any more specifics; there is a lot I didn't say here that I could have.