When I was little I grew up in a small town of Wamego Kansas. Population? about 3,000. It was small and quaint. My house was on the corner, across from a huge park. Small and blue, where my sister slept in the attic and I shared a room with my parents. It was cozy at the time and all that I knew.

My first memories were in the park. A place where I first witnessed the monarch butterfly migration. It was absolutely magical and quite stunning. I remember walking through downtown and observing the crooked streets. I greeted strangers as they passed treating them like old friends.

Yet, my small world of Wamego Kansas, completed with the Tulip festival and playing with children in the park of my front yard, was coming to a close. My dad got a new job in the East Coast and with it, my whole family moved.

I left when I was just 7. I just returned at the ripe age of 19, almost 20, to visit my other sister and consequentially my hometown.

My Gosh Golly, has it changed tremendously.

It has become a tourists dream. It's really capitalized on the theme of Wizard of Oz in Kansas. There's an Oz winery, an Oz museum, and painted Toto dogs litter the downtown streets. Its become decorative, whimsical, and simply lovely.

I love my hometown and what it's become. It's absolutely surreal to see that while I was growing up states away, my hometown was doing the same in the Heartland.

A part of me wishes could've stayed and watched it first hand. Watch them paint the first Toto or remodel aspects of the park. Watch as a the dramatic transition slowly unfolded. But alas, I am happy with my life and what is has become. I'm happy with my friends and my boyfriend, my education and my college, with how the East Coast has helped to shape me.

I love my hometown, a bit differently and more nostalgic than the East Coast, but the East Coast has served me well.

I am grateful for the places I've seen and been, with a special place in my heart for my hometown.