With summer coming to a close, I started adapting to my small town once again. I realized that, although things may change visually within a town, the little quirks and aspects of it remain the same and always know how to get you feeling nostalgic on your last few days of summer.

1. A trip to the local target is a high school reunion.

You either walk in wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and an all-black jumpsuit or you accept the fact that you’re going to run into your ex-boyfriends’ best friend twice removed but married into the family’s cousin who you happened to have 5^th period with for the first two weeks of sophomore year.

2. You don’t know what it’s like to get somewhere “cool” without taking the freeway or taking a 45-minute drive.

Yeah okay, my small town is in SoCal and surrounded by many beautiful things, but even getting to a freeway near me takes about 15 minutes. PLUS the extra 30 minutes it takes to actually end up near the coast. I’ll just save the gas and find my way out there another day…

3. You will always know what it’s like to have best friends to come home to.

Regardless if it’s one person, your mom, your dog, or a group of people, you always know that there will be someone in your hometown that has been there for you through all the ups and the downs and has seen you blossom from your horrendous awkward stages and promises to keep the pictures that were taken at the time locked away. It’s a comforting feeling knowing that a piece of home will always be waiting for you, even if they aren’t necessarily at home either.

4. Town gossip

You could possibly have never met someone before, but be able to assume their life choices and hear about their crazy drunken nights just through social media, word of mouth, or just be knowing what high school they attended. There’s no keeping big secrets in a small town, unfortunately we’ve all found a way to make sure that the game “telephone” stays alive and well. Xoxo, gossip girl.

5. You cherish it like no other

There are the good and the many bad, but you will always have a huge place in your heart for the place that's shaped you into the person you are and showed you what it was like to have family dinners and embarrassing moments, and to make connections with people you would have never met. It’s a place that can be left but never forgotten, because without a small town, I know I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the big world I’m venturing through to this day.