For 16 years of my life, I lived in a small town called Moorpark, about an hour north of Los Angeles, in the suburbs of Ventura County. Although Moorpark is pretty small, (only 34,000 people), I’ve grown to love it, and treasure it as my hometown. Moorpark has a pretty tight-knit community, and it seems like everyone knows each other. Here are a few things everyone who’s grown up in Moorpark knows:

1. There’s way too many parks for a town that it takes 10 minutes to drive across.

About 14 to be exact. And contrary to what it sounds like, that’s not why it's called “MoorPARK.” Apparently, that’s the name of some apricot that used to grow here, or at least that’s what our fifth grade teachers told us.

2. Mesa Verde is Messed up Verde and Chaparral is Crapparal.

Ah, yes, middle school rivalries. We all have way too much pride in which middle school we went to, and will occasionally still fight each other, including petty name calling, on which one was better: Mesa Verde or Chaparral.

3. You can’t go to Target without seeing everyone and their Grandma.

Seriously, you can’t. If you’re trying to lay low, stay away from the only Target in town. It seems like you can never walk in without seeing at least five of your classmates with their moms.

4. In-N-Out is the place to be after football games.

After football games at the high school, it was a mad dash to drive over to In-N-Out before the line was out the door. I feel bad for anyone who didn’t know there was a game and just wanted a burger, because it’ll take at least half an hour to get to the front of the line.

5. If you weren’t hanging out at one of the 14 parks after school in middle school, you were probably loitering outside of Vons.

Seriously, this was the coolest hangout spot when we were 13. Don’t ask me why I couldn’t tell you.

6. When there’s nowhere else to go on a Friday night, you go to "The View."

It may just be an empty dirt lot where they didn’t build a house for some reason, but it does overlook all of Moorpark, so I guess it’s pretty cool. Although you’re bound to run into someone else you know up there, since it seems like pretty much every high schooler is bored on a Friday night in Moorpark.

7. As much as everyone complains there’s nothing to do here, we all miss it once we leave.

Moorpark may seem too small and uneventful for us while we’re “stuck here” during high school, but as soon as we leave, we all miss it at least a little. After all, it’s home.

8. Moorpark may be small, but that means we have a tight-knit community.

All of us bash our town all the time, but when it really matters, this community is there for each other. If anything ever happens that affects our whole town, we have this amazing ability to all come together and support each other. I’m lucky to say I grew up in a community that was this welcoming and tight-knit.

We all feel like we're trapped in such a small town while we're in high school here, but I think a lot of us don't realize how truly lucky we were to grow up here. Moorpark is a community full of loving and caring people, and there's always someone there for you when you need help, whether it's an old teacher or your parents. I'm so grateful to have been able to call Moorpark my hometown, and I wouldn't have wanted to spend the first 18 years of my life anywhere else.