As we get older we come to realize how certain things when we were younger seemed good, were actually pretty bad. Growing up in a small lake town since the age of one years old, a lot has changed since I was that young. I grew up in this little town that either no one has heard of, or was on News12 for student petitions in 2013-2014, or it is because of a drug bust, it will be pronounced something completely different than how it is.

Once I left for college, I did not want my parents to move out of the town; I was selfish and wanted to go home to the town that I grew up loving to. As time went on though, found that I do not want my family to be in this town again, I mean I still love being there, but I had to let something’s go. I had to leave people behind because they were not good for me, or they came into my life for a reason and now that reason is done, so they left. It is a part of becoming an adult and maturing.

I became an adult. I cannot keep running back to the town that drove me down to the ground, emotionally and educationally. My hometown had a poor education system, so what I learned is not as up-to-par like others I now go to school with. The issue I have now is, do I have to go back to this town? No I do not, but I do. I only do for the girl I have been friends with since the beginning. Although, if I was asked to go to construction at my schools Drama Club, I would gladly go, but just to see how everything has change. I cannot build anymore, unless asked to of course, I am not a student there, and I am alumni. Part of growing up is making our own story and we scribble, we draw, and we cry on the paper, and we write; this makes us who we are. I thought that I was only going to be able to do that in this town, but turns out, I can do that everywhere.

The only time I find myself in my hometown now is to be with a friend of mine, but if someone else were to call or text and ask to hang out at the park, it depends on who and what time, the park in my hometown is not the greatest place to be most of the time. I only have mainly one person in this town that I will talk to everyday and hang out with, and I have known her for most of my life already; and like me, she is working on getting out of this town for good. The one thing that I will never forget is, “Once a Chief, always a Chief.”

This was my home.