To whom it may concern,

Our community population continues to grow larger day after day, but it seems like the community itself continues to shrink. I’ve lived in rural Minnesota my whole life and as I’ve grown up I’ve realized some very scary facts about the community.

As a senior in high school, I know that a majority of me does not want to return to the local area after graduation when it begins my new life. In a way, this saddens me because this is where I grew up and where most of my family lives. On the other hand, I can’t wait to leave so I can experience new things and continue to grow up with many more opportunities that other communities have.

Honestly, if you went up to any high school junior or senior and asked them if they wanted to stay in the area post-graduation a majority of them would say no. Why? Well, the main reason, in my opinion, is that there is nothing for teenagers to do; or anyone for that matter. Unless you’re old enough to go to the bars every weekend you’re stuck at home. There really is nothing for that middle generation to do. Over the past decade or so, our community has lost its outdoor pool, movie theater, mall, lake water quality, and most recently the bowling alley. Some may argue that we could go see movies at the Memorial Auditorium, but to be perfectly honest, I'd rather drive to another town to see a new movie instead of watching a movie I’ve seen before or could buy from Walmart.

There isn’t even a place for kids my age to just hang out with friends without being accused of doing something illegal. From personal experience, I know how people with authority look at kids my age. I have been accused of drinking and breathalyzed just from sitting on the tailgate of a truck. Don’t tell me that there’s nothing wrong with that and that the officers were just doing their jobs, because there were plenty of drunk adults getting into their vehicles and driving home that night.

Most of my Friday and Saturday nights are spent doing lake laps or sitting at home watching Netflix. Trying to hang out with friends is always a hassle because no one wants to just sit at their own house. Your house always seems boring to you, but never to your friends. Even when my friends and I do figure out which house we’ll be staying at, we only end up leaving to go to McDonald’s to get food because we’re bored, or watching movies while gossiping about all the drama at school. Both McDonald’s and high school drama get old really fast. Who knew?

I could go on and on about what our local community doesn’t have and my opinions won’t make a change. The point of this letter is to show our citizens what it’s like to grow up in the local area. No one wants to stay here, which is such a disappointment because I loved growing up here in my elementary years. If the community doesn’t start to grow with entertainment businesses, it will be missing a whole generation in the future. Unless you want the local area to be missing a whole generation I think it’s time we start to act upon our words and expand the community to new things. Change isn’t always a bad thing.

Sincerely,