Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The perks of a blink town

"In any small town, sports are really important to the highschool, and I wasn't very good at sports"
-Martina McBride

I grew up in a blink town. Blink once on your drive in, and you'd find yourself on your way out. In towns like that you'd expect farmers and country folk, which we had our fair share of, but mostly we had the rich kids and the trailer Park kids. I nestled in somewhere in the middle, carving myself a place in the "not quite good enough to be cool" section of high school. Better yet, I found myself lacking even a scrap of athletic ability. Oh, I tried my hand at this and that, long story short, failure.
I was always more creative, choir, forensics, and writing for the school newspaper.

Drama does not a popular student make.

During high school I was miserable, couldn't wait to kick rocks on this old blink town and never look back.

Now I am setting off on my adventure, but I'll be damned if I won't raise my kids in a blink town someday. A town where the owner of the local diner knows your name, and how you like your coffee and eggs. Where you run into family at the cafe and they buy your lunch for you. This is a town where I keep all my cherished childhood memories. Where we rode dirtbikes, played four-square, jumped on the trampoline in the rain, got into mischief and had bonfires. This is the town I got my first job in, the job I walked to every morning to serve eggs and bacon to the townsfolk, where my best tipper was my dad, who was so proud of me just for being there.
A small town is where dreams grow big, and the itch to go chase them down grows deeper and deeper with time.
I'm so thankful I am not one of those girls who married my high school sweetheart, popped out a few kids and became a housewife by 24 just to waste away wondering what could have been. That's fine for them, but not for me.
A small town will either make you spread your wings or plant your roots and this girl is taking flying lessons.