Wind. Dirt. Weeds. Bare branches. Same people. Same town. Small town probs.
Right now, I am at a point in my life where I am on the last stretch to graduating and moving on from the only life I have ever known. I can not wait any longer to leave. I am so sick of the wind and dirt. I am so sick of the flat land. I am so sick of the same people I’ve known for eighteen years. I am so sick of school and working my butt off for good grades. I am sick of all of it, and I want to leave it behind and forget.
I have these thoughts frequently. Just the other day, I was grumpy and wanting time to skip ahead a few months so I could leave all of the things I am so sick of and start a new life. While having these thoughts, I drove past the house I lived in until I was nine years old. As I passed my childhood home, a flood of memories came into my mind, making me appreciate my time growing up in a little town, on a really little ranch.
My backyard was an unbelievable forest of life and magic all thrown together with a little concrete. Our playground included a trampoline, a hammock, a rope swing, and a few cages for chickens, dogs, and crows. We had green grass that seemed to grow all year round. The trees were as tall as skyscrapers and we often were brave enough to climb them (my mom usually had to come get me down because I was not, however, brave enough to climb down).
Each summer, we would bring in a cow trough, a circular tub that you fill up for the cows to drink out of. After a few minutes of patiently waiting for the hose to fill up the homemade pool, we would jump in the whole two inches of water to start splashing around. We would play for a few hours while it was filling up and finally the real fun would begin. We would use our arms to pull ourselves around and around the edge of the “pool” to create a whirlpool. After a few minutes of tiring swimming/army crawling, the water and our imaginations would carry us ‘out to sea’. As far as I’m concerned, we were the best mermaids and we had the clearest and coldest ocean water anyone would ever see. Summers would fade into fall as we would become pruny from eating, reading, and swimming all the time away in our mermaid pool.
My neighbors frequently changed, except for one. Our dear friend, Ginnie, lived in a log cabin and was such an amazing neighbor. We knew if we wanted a treat that Mom and Dad wouldn’t give us, we could hop the fence and jump right into Ginnie’s back yard. Skipping into her house was somehow never a surprise to her. She would reach up to the top of her fridge and grab the basket of cookies and give each of us a few. With a cold pop and cookies in hand we would return home. Along with the treats, she always provided us with a good story or a fun lesson. I still love the kindness and love she showed us crazy kids.
Looking back on a few wonderful experiences, I realized that this small town was not so bad. In fact, it is a wonderful place to grow up. I am truly grateful to have grown up in a small town! I love the beautiful people that I have known for so long, and I am grateful to know how much they care about me. I love the desert and the red dirt. Some days, I even love the wind. As I am getting closer and closer to graduation, I am becoming more and more grateful for each little thing that I will soon leave. Although I still am really excited to graduate, I can say that I will miss good old Holbrook.
If you ever feel unhappy with life's circumstances, take my experience and learn to step back and reflect. It's easy to focus on the hard or the bad in situations, but if we change our perspective and recognize the opportunities we have to learn and grow, our life will be full of happy memories and fewer regrets. Somehow the small probs are replaced with gratitude for where we come from, even if it is a small town.
I enjoyed reading this. I like how you included memories from your childhood and growing up in this post, it made me think of some memories that I have had. We are all on the cusp of graduating and leaving everything we have known for so many years. I hear everyday people saying how much they are ready to leave and how excited they are to leave this town. It is exciting, but scary at the same time. Nostalgia is going to be present within all of us for a little bit when we first move. It's good to remember these small memories we have had growing up here together in this small town. This town has shapped us into who we will be leaving, and hopefully we can take some of the things we have learned with us as we move on to the next chapter in our lives. This blog you wrote helped me appreciate this town more than I did!
ReplyDeleteI, too, believe you are a great storyteller. Relating to your topic, everyday or at least every week, I hear someone say that they want to get out of this town because it has a lot of drama or it is too windy, but they don’t really don’t think about the good that is here in Holbrook. We also know that some say that but still don’t leave. There ARE some worse places to live.
ReplyDeleteI think that in a few years we are all going to miss this small place and how close everyone was. It is true that this town is a big part of our lives and it holds great memories. I will always remember the things that have happened here.
Thanks for this reminder to be grateful for being able to live in Holbrook and to remember the good in everything.
Savana, I really enjoyed your writing. Growing up wasn’t a hassle for being in a small town, especially when you had to walk around everywhere as the Steel V’s had to do so. Growing up in this small town it is easy to say how you hate it, everybody does at some point in their lives, and some people more than others. But overall as you said in your paper this is a great little town, it is our little town. I really enjoyed the stories that you portrayed in my head and talking about the old lady neighbor was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteWe will be moving on to bigger and better things, but we both know that in the worst circumstances, or maybe not that bad, that we have our little town of Holbrook to lean back on.