I’m from Fairfield Township, a town in southern Butler County about forty minutes north of Cincinnati. Land of split-rails and streetlights. My dad sells steel and my mom teaches middle school in the next town over. It’s a pretty typical mid-sized suburban town – a good local school district (Go Indians!), couple grocery stores and more cal-de-sacs than you could count. Our claim to fame is Jungle Jim’s International Market, but other than that it’s a pretty quiet place. It’s my home though, and I’d be proud to show you around if you’re ever in the neighborhood. I've lived here my whole life. I can’t tell the future, but I reckon it’s where they’ll put me in the ground someday.
Some time back, a girl I know spent a while telling me how much she couldn’t stand the place she came from. She said she felt trapped when she went home, that she didn’t want to wind up like so many of her high school friends who never seemed to do anything with their lives after graduation. After college, she told me, she wanted to get as far away as possible – New York, L.A., anywhere but her hometown.
It’s times like that when I realize just how lucky I am. For me, my home is anything but a prison. I can’t say that I’ve never felt the same as her – Lord knows my 16-year-old self couldn’t wait to hit the road. Now that I’m away at school though, something always brings me on back. It’s all too easy to get caught up in life at OSU – schoolwork, friends and everything else that college brings – and it’s nice being able to get back home. Maybe it’s that everything seems to move a little slower here, maybe it’s that I can breathe outside of the city, maybe it’s that I don’t have to pay like five bucks to do laundry. Whatever it is, that little piece of the 45011 zip code that I call home will always hold a special place in my heart.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to expand your horizons. Change is an important thing, and some people need a lot of it to be happy. One of the greatest things about this time in our lives is the ability to pick up and start fresh wherever our futures take us. Maybe those New York City lights are calling your name, maybe your dreams will take you to an entirely different country. Wherever you go though, never forget the place that raised you. It doesn’t have to define you, but where you’re from shapes who you are. Love it or hate it, miss it or despise it, your hometown is part of you. Don’t lose touch with your roots when you head back to school. That’s something I have to remind myself every day. This is my town and these are my people. We’ve got our issues, but then again, who doesn’t?
Well I know where I come from, how about you?
