I recently saw an article this week from an online paper in my hometown. The headline read something like this "police arrest dad after powderpuff football fight". Soak that in, a man decided that something that happened at a powderpuff football game was important enough to fight over. Farmington, WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS!

It is embarrassing when I get texts from friends telling me they saw this article about my home, its hard hearing my mom tell me they don't know where to send my brother for high school because everywhere is getting a little too rough. Besides having fights at football games, our school system is becoming atrocious. As an alumni I am sickened to hear some of the changes that have been taking place. You have some of the greatest teachers at your disposal, please treat them with the respect and kindness they deserve! Allow them to actually educate our students and allow for them to grow! The teachers I have had in Farmington have been some of the best teachers I have ever encountered, they taught me so much more than just lesson plans they taught me life skills. Please do not cut the arts, life sciences and vocational studies! Our school system has very little college prep to begin with, if you take away classes that allow people to explore passions like art, cars, or medicine how are they supposed to know what they want to major in? You need to provide some other outlet for other types of intelligence rather than just general studies. Understand how stressful this is to the current students, these kids have been to so many different schools in so little time do to restructuring the district time and time again. Do not fail your students because some of them are this cities future.

This is not who we are! We are a town that has a rich history, a town that embraces and celebrates culture, we are a town where odds are you see family friends at the farmers market on Saturdays. We are a small town that has been ranked in the top 100 places to live in the united states for awhile and its time we find our roots again.

This little town has a lot to be proud of, and I think we should remember to focus on that in order to create a positive change. Within the past year Farmington opened its first vegan restaurant and its doing incredibly well! We just opened a fresh thyme market that is focused on working with local farmers, and we still house a great farmers market on Saturday's with some of the best food/produce around. Farmington has one of the lowest crime rates of anywhere in Michigan! Our annual founders festival helps local businesses and artists along with providing a fun day out to explore the town! The veterans day parade that focuses on celebrating those who served from around our community! Businesses like Greenes or Bates burgers, that everyone loves, who have been around for years! A place where we passed a large bond to improve our schools! We are a family focused town, a place I am proud to call home!

Our community can do better, please do whatever you can to make our wonderful town an amazing place to live. I look forward to our town has in store for its future.