If you would’ve told me that after I graduated high school I would somehow learn to miss my crazy hometown, I would’ve laughed in your face. Growing up I hated the repetitiveness of my little town. Every day felt as if it was the same as the last one. You woke up and almost knew exactly how the day was going to play out. Moving away to college I realized how much I took my small town for granted. There is so much I wish I would’ve appreciated more while I still had it.

I miss the smell. Weird, right? My sweet, little country bumpkin town has so many unique and wonderful smells. They are so unique in fact I struggle with trying to describe them to you. They are smells that I would recognize anywhere and any point in time throughout my life. The smell have so many memories to them. From walking around town with my friends in middle school past curfew, to running the dusty trails during cross country practice, all the way to the hallways of my high school. These smells linger around that small place and it’s something I wish I could put in a tiny little candle and carry it with me everywhere I go in life.

My hometown has taught me so many valuable lessons. One of the best I keep in mind (especially as a broke college kid) is how to have fun without needing to break the bank. Sitting on the back of a tailgate with a fire and a few beers was where some of my most favorite memories were made. A can of spray paint and an old back road could keep me and my friends occupied for hours. A trip to the local dairy queen was always the go to after a Friday night football game and only costs five dollars at most.

Another lesson my hometown has taught me is people can change. Growing up in a small town makes it very easy to get a bad rep right off the bat and to do one thing and be judged for your whole life. Watching my peers and myself grow up and go our separate ways has made me realize how your past doesn’t define you. You make your life and you can change it at any time, and anyway you want.

All in all, just like every ones hometowns, they have their flaws but there is nowhere else you could call home like that. It’s like not only do you really miss the place but also the people you love and the person you were while you were there because in all honesty time changes everyone and you will never be that person again.